


Animania

by KayErzaLee



Category: D.Gray-man, Fairy Tail, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, Hunter X Hunter, Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball, Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic, One Piece, Sword Art Online
Genre: ACG Event, Multiple Crossovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-21
Updated: 2014-12-19
Packaged: 2018-02-18 05:39:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2337194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KayErzaLee/pseuds/KayErzaLee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>WARNING: This story is listed under "Anime/Manga Crossovers", however the entire setting is at an ACG convention. In other words, all characters mentioned are cosplayers cosplaying as said characters and not the actual ones. <br/>SUMMARY: At an ACG convention gone horribly wrong, the attendees of the Anifiesta convention find themselves trapped, with cosplayers being able to wield real anime/manga powers! Amidst the chaotic scene, a sudden murder throws the trapped victims into further danger, hurling them into an undesired survival game. Written as a tribute to Comic Fiesta Malaysia.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. And So It Begins

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Comic Fiesta](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Comic+Fiesta).



> Hey guys! So I have to warn you first that if you came here looking for specific characters or anime/manga being featured, then I'm very sorry because most of the characters or anime/manga tagged are mentioned only slightly in the story so they might not be given as much 'screen time' as you would've liked. However, if you're looking for a multiple crossover story of (around 20 or more) anime and manga series, then this might be for you.  
> P.S. I'll be tagging more fandoms as the story goes along.

“Recently, scientists have reported strange sightings of the Solar System, and have boldly predicted that our world will enter a new dimension sometime in the near future, crossing time and space.”  
“However, these claims were perceived by many as mere hoaxes, as there have been no solid evidence on this matter until today. Most people now believe that all this fuss over nothing would relive the falsified incident two years ago regarding the Mayan’s prediction of the End of the World.”

 

* * *

 

Every year, the people of our nation come face-to-face with a mind-boggling, heart-racing, fangirl-squealing, wallet-flattening, camera-snapping, eye-gluing, sardine-like-crowd-squeezing sensation.  
That’s right. I’m talking about Anifiesta, renowned as the largest ACG event in the history of large ACG events.  
This year, Anifiesta returns bigger and better with the event located at the newly established 8-storey convention center with over 30 exhibition halls, 15 meeting rooms, 8 banquet halls and even an underground passage leading to a concert auditorium.  
Excited? Well, we’re not even halfway there.  
Our cosplay competitions return with opportunities for the loyal and diehard cosplay fanatics, so if you want to be crowned the King and Queen of Cosplay, fetch your multi-colored wigs and get into character!  
Also, Anifiesta’s annual Game Quest is on a whole new level of intensity and fun! If you’re an avid detective (Conan), do participate in the quest! The grand prize is currently classified information, but will be revealed on the final day of the event. Be sure to keep track of the announcements from the Main Hall, where our Anifiesta emcees will be blowing the roof off the place (though not literally).

On a side note, we all know you’ve been fretting over that ‘natural phenomenon’ the world has been concerned about. Rest assured…entering a new dimension is better than the end of the world, right?

Come on, we all have that secret fetish for the interesting and unexplored. I’ll bet all of you are dying of curiosity to see what happens if we really do enter a new dimension. Wow, talk about “out of this world”.  
To unveil the magic behind an otaku’s obsession, to see for yourself the vast horizons of the ACG world, to proudly announce to the world that you’re a full-fledged ACG fan, come join in the fun for three unforgettable days of Anifiesta 2014! See you in a week~

  
_Note: The above article is solely of the author’s personal opinion and does not, in any way, represent the authorities_   _of the actual Anifiesta event._

 

* * *

 

People pushed against each other in futile attempts to enter the hall – a plain and regular sight, for longtime supporters of Anifiesta. Things didn’t seem that pretty for the first-timers, though.  
Deep in the halls, the congested human traffic had become quite an issue. Committees and volunteers were rushing to keep things in order, but none of them could contain their own excitements for the start of the final day of Anifiesta 2014 after two whole days of fun-filled ACG-ness either.  
“Damn! This is all because that stupid columnist guy wrote that article about us.” groaned a volunteer in his mid-twenties as he shoved the raging crowd back in line. His comrade at the side, who was in the same motion as he was, gave a helpless sigh.  
“Oh, well it’s alright.” a visitor approached the two. “At least we’re having fun, right?”  
The two volunteers exchanged glances and smiled.  
The crowd was completely unaffected by the loud anime music booming through the speakers. In fact, most of them were singing along to it. There were even those who could remember the lyrics of random songs without actually understanding them.  
The visitors gathered round the booths, pondering over which set of cat-ears to purchase, watching the ongoing Vanguard battles, placing orders for art commissions, screening through doujins and spamming their camera and phone buttons for every single cosplayer they met.  
Ah, the beauty of life as an ACG fan.  
…  
…  
…  
“Man, this is so annoying. There’re so many people.”  
“Chill. Aren’t ACG events supposed to be like this? That’s the fun of it.”  
“Urgh. This is pissing me off. There are no seats, we have a lack of oxygen and all these damn people are blocking the road. I just wish something more interesting would happen.”

 

* * *

3rd Day of Anifiesta ’14 – 11.30am  
…  
“Welcome, one and all to Ani–” Pause. “ –fiesta–” Pause. “–2014!” The emcee roared into the microphone, gaining a huge applause and cheer from the assembled crowd.  
“And now we give you…” the other emcee strode onto the stage. “…the official launch of the final day of Anifiesta 2014!”  
Dramatic music was cued, as the oversized screen wallpapered at the back of the stage showed footages of previous Anifiesta events.

... 

The crimson headed girl struck her best pose to the camera, with one hand on her cat-ear hair band and the other playing with her cat-tail mischievously. After surpassing the horrendous stage of not being able to squint at blinding flashes, she nodded politely at the photographers and turned to enter Main Hall, where the ceremony took place.  
“I should probably change to the Flame Empress armor now that Cat Suit Erza is done parading around.” she told herself. Reaching for her head, the girl stopped in her tracks, her hand feeling around her head blindly.  
“…what happened to my band?”  
Chills crept over her as she quickly felt for her tail, trying to remove it. “It…It won’t come off!”  
To her horror, she twitched her cat-ears and lashed her tail. Panicking, she turned to all the cosplayers around her.  
A cosplayer who was dressed as Roronoa Zoro from One Piece posed with his plastic katana out for the photographers.  
“Try doing a cool slash down the floor.” suggested a photographer.  
Doing as requested, the man prepared himself and lunged the katana down – only to be taken aback by the gust which followed the procedure and the thorough laceration down through the concrete floor.  
“Whoa…” the photographers spammed their camera shots and repeatedly took photos of the stunning action.  
“Him too?” The cat-girl muttered.  
From the side, screams and shrills could be heard as cosplayers all around the halls found surreal happenings to their costumes and props. Without further hesitation, they rushed towards the Main Hall.

 ...

“With this, we now officially launch Ani–”  
“Help, somebody!” A whole wave of cosplayers rushed into the Main Hall, gaining weird looks from the speculators surrounding the stage. The emcees exchanged glances with the other committee members at the side of the stage and back at the frantic visitors.  
A short midget stormed up the stage in an angry manner and snatched the microphone from one of the astonished emcees.  
“Um…how can we…”  
“Look at me!” yelled the midget, motioning his hand up and down at his height.  
“Uh…you’re a life-sized Edward Elric cosplayer? Yeah, that’s really nice, I’m sure you’d win the Cosplay Competition later, but–”  
“No!” the boy shouted in exasperation. He pushed up his red sleeve, revealing a metallic right blade in place of his hand.  
The hustling crowd fell silent. They too, were focused on the  _Fullmetal Alchemist_ character.  
“I lost my hand!” he yelled. “I…I just wore this fake plastic glove over my hand which kind of looked like Ed’s automail and the next thing I knew, I had a real automail hand!”  
Murmurs broke out across the hall.  
“And…” the boy slapped his chest. “I’m flat-chested!”  
“…and that’s a problem because…”  
“I was crossdressing as Ed! I’m supposed to be a girl!”  
“…wow.”  
The committees were discussing among themselves at the outrageous claims.  
“And it’s not just me,” said the cosplayer. “There are lots of cosplayers down there who can suddenly use real magic, perform tricks like their cosplayed characters and can’t take off their costumes.”  
“Look, I don’t really follow. What do you mean?” asked the dumbfounded emcee, eyebrows furrowed.  
Tired of explaining, ‘Ed’ marched over to the side of the stage, where a few goodie bags were placed. Grabbing one of them, he threw it up in the air, clasped his hands together and put both palms onto the bag. A blue bolt of electricity materialized before widened eyes, transforming the bag into a handful of colorful confetti raining down onto the alchemist.  
“He just…”  
“…performed alchemy…?”  
People were too bewildered to even speak ill of the boy-girl’s intentions.  
“There, you see?” said the cosplayer. “Something weird is definitely going on. Fake weapons becoming real, physical gender-bending, impossible tricks now feasible…what in the world is going on?”  
The committees fell silent, in contrast to the noise the onlookers were beginning to make.  
“Think about it, people!” exclaimed a young man of nineteen. “Isn’t this awesome? We aren’t just ‘cosplaying’ the characters now–we are the characters!”  
Some exchanged glances unconvinced, but others chatted and nodded enthusiastically.  
“He’s right. What’s so bad about this?”  
“Yeah, I could get inside a girl’s head now.”  
“Oh, you’re only lucky you decided to cross-dress today. What a perv.”  
“Cool! I can perform jutsus now?”  
“And my guns actually work?”  
“Hey, I can move my wings!”  
“Cool!”  
“Hey, try out that Sawada Tsunayoshi’s X-Burner with your glove.”  
“Omigosh, it really works!”  
As the committees could see, they could no longer suppress the roaring excitement of the otakus.  
“Contact President Nerd. We’ve got a problem,” whispered a lady to her assistant.  
The  _Fullmetal Alchemist_ cosplayer stood frozen on stage, watching the scene unfold. Beams of light shone out of nowhere, fireballs were thrown carelessly, katanas were swung at strangers in a childish act to spar, presenting an ironic paradigm of auroras.  
Eventually, a loud scream of horror was to thank for silencing the crowd. People turned to the source of the voice, where a group was encircling something.

A raven-haired girl with a ponytail tied to the side of her head watched quietly from the side. She knew better than to act impetuously.

Some committee members pushed their way into the crowd. When they finally reached the clearing, the surrounding onlookers turned and gave way, moving stiffly like clockwork dolls. Their faces pale as a sheet, as if they’ve seen a ghost.  
Peering down into the center of the clearing, the committee members figured they might as well have.  
A man lay writhing on the grey floor – movements close to a fish out of water – gasping for air. But what attracted the crowd was not the fact that he was sprawled on the floor.  
It was the crimson blood cascading out of his abdomen in a grotesque manner, where a katana had pierced through.  
“W-Wha…”  
“Who did this…?”  
A woman, presumably the one who screamed, flung her head sideways, her eyes searching. “Who did this!?” she yelled. “Who is the killer??”  
Visitors near and far suddenly felt tingling goose bumps down their spines. Anybody could be the killer. It could be someone standing right next to them, and they could strike with another weapon before you know it.  
Wary and horrified, the crowd dispersed in a chaotic and disorganized pattern, each running off to elevators and exits, staying out of each other’s way the best they could. Some ran over to the restrooms to throw up after witnessing the gory scene.  
Among the hectic state, committee members were busy dialing numbers into their phones and hurling questions at each other. They tried to set everything in order, giving instructions to keep things under control – but not before sending the injured man off to receive medical treatment.  
“But how are we going to do it?” asked one of the committee members. “We’ll have to remove the sword.”  
They looked at one another, expressions solemn and still in shock.  
“Well, someone’s gotta do it.”  
“Wait, no!” A man rushed over to them. “You’ll kill him!”  
“Do you know this person?”  
“He’s my friend…” nodded the man, kneeling beside the injured victim. He then shouted, almost hysterically. “Come on, Randolph, speak to me!”  
Randolph was gasping softly, his lips parting. “…I…”  
“Wait, no, don’t talk. Don’t say anything. We’ll get you help.” The man looked at the committee members, seeking help.  
They turned to each other, unsure of what they should be doing.  
“Someone’s dying here! Do something!” the man screamed.  
“Hey, how’s the 911 call?” Someone asked.  
The person who had been trying to call looked up from her phone. “There’s no line here. I can’t contact anyone!”  
“What? What do you mean, no line? It was fine just ten minutes ago.”  
More and more attendees stopped by the injured man.  
“How’s the situation?” One of them asked.  
A committee member shook his head, trembling slightly. “I…We don’t know what to do…!”  
“I don’t care what it is, just do something!!” The friend of Randolph’s roared in panicking fury. “No, no. Hang on!” He watched in horror as Randolph gave him one last smile before closing his eyes. His gasps for air came to a complete stop as his face grew paler than before.  
The man gaped at the sight of his deceased friend with a scream hitched in his throat. His breathing grew intense as he slowly began to get a grip of the situation.  
“He’s…dead?” One of the cosplayers who witnessed the scene whispered.  
Another wave of screams were set off as some people scrambled away from the corpse. The group of committee members were backing away with trembling feet.  
A new series of news set everyone off, announced by the people who returned after rushing out to the exits earlier.  
“There’s a freaky barrier around this entire building. Our cosplay powers are useless against it – we’re trapped here!”  
More people flung themselves at the exits in denial, wailing and crying their souls out.

...

And thus began the third day of Anifiesta 2014.

 

* * *

 

“Thirty-thousand people, eighteen thousand cosplayers, thirty-two halls to hide in and more than one killer to hide from.”

 

 


	2. Coffy, Tea and Mii

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From this chapter onwards, we'll be following the story from the perspective of an OC, Han Rae-yeon. (I didn't realize her name wasn't mentioned at all in this chapter until my friend helped me proofread it...)
> 
> I hope you'll enjoy Chapter 2 and do give me your feedback! :)
> 
> P.S. Thanks for the comment, Tessa! It really made my day~~

It’s been a couple of hours since the incident began. For now, most people have given up on clawing at the doors, but some persistent ones are still trying to break open the exits.

I crouched behind the wall, looking behind my shoulder at the hallway. People were fighting at the food counter to get their hands on food stock, and by the looks of it, it’s not going to be easy trying to wedge into that crowd.

They’re monsters. They’re hungry, feral beasts who’re using their newfound cosplay powers to grab the food. It was an all-out battle, with superpowers flung around everywhere. It’s not much different from what happened at the stage.

Some left the money, some didn’t.

My stomach growled. It was way past lunchtime, and with no way out, I didn’t have much of a choice.

I stood up cautiously, still with my back pressed against the wall. I watched.

Even those who made it out with meagre supplies of food were attacked. People were begging and yelling and pushing and scratching and it was horrifying to imagine how ugly things would get if we’re stuck in here for more than a day.

I shuddered at the thought.

I needed an alternative. A way out.

I whipped my head around, eyes taking everything in. There were two doors which led to the hallways outside of the exhibition halls. They’re not blocked, but to get there, I needed to shove past the crowd with max speed.

I had my doubts running in stilettos heels, but I shook off my fear.

I dashed out from behind the wall and I ran for my life.

* * *

“We need to do something,” said the bespectacled brunette. He was standing in a circle together with a few other committee members, all clad in Anifiesta shirts and with special tags hanging around their necks.

“It’s not our fault!” whined a woman. “I mean, yeah, so we’re the organizing committee and we should be responsible for everything that happens here, but this–” She gestured at the translucent wall outside the floor-to-ceiling glass windows. “–this is insane! We have no idea what this is.”

“Maggie is right,” another nodded as he folded his arms. “This is out of our control.”

“But we can’t just sit around and watch these people attack each other!” exclaimed the brunette.

A few others sighed. “What did the President say?”

“He’s having a meeting with those in charge. He asked us to take care of the crowd, but there’s no way I’m going in there.”

“Yeah, and we still have the suspect to worry about.”

“Do you think he hurt the guy on purpose?”

“Who knows? It was so chaotic back there. With all the pushing, I think it was pretty easy for his real katana to hit a target.”

I watched from the side–chewing on a sandwich which could very well have cost me my life buying–while I listened. I headed out as soon as I could, and while there were lots of shoving and screaming, I didn’t think those whom I stepped on with my demonic heels would leave the counter unscathed.

The hallway stretched across the building, located between the halls and the exits. There were doors leading to every single exhibition hall from there, and it came as a surprise to me that not many people were rushing out here to get to the other halls. There was practically no one around but the circle of committee members and myself. And those who were still clawing at the main exit, far from where we were standing.

There wasn’t anywhere to hide out in the wide hallways, and with practically no one in sight, I could be easily spotted. But they were too engrossed in their conversation to notice me.

“But what if it was intentional?” asked a woman with two pigtails tied at the sides of her head.

The others turned to her.

The brunette’s eye darkened. “It’ll mean we have a killer on the loose.”

The word _killer_ rang in my head. My eyes grew wide in horror, and so did theirs. I backed away, not wanting to hear any more. I turned and headed towards the other end of the hallway. The floor-to-ceiling windows stretched across the entire hallway.

Though rays of sunlight still fell through the translucent barrier, anyone near it could feel its unnerving presence. The barrier was almost creepy, taunting us, a reminder that we were trapped in here for kami-knows-how-long, experiencing this ridiculously impossible occurrence.

I stared at it, and I could feel it staring back.

A scream broke out, and was muffled almost immediately.

My head shot up, eyes staring at the escalator up at front. I looked over my shoulder.

The scream was quite some distance from the committee members, and they were still talking, still worrying, still not noticing, still not doing anything.

I dashed forward and ran up the escalator. My stilettos clanked loudly against the steps as my eyes scanned around for any signs of danger.

_Killer._

Once I reached the top floor, I stopped and listened. There wasn’t anyone there, just another empty hallway. I couldn’t hear anything.

_Killer_.

Was it just my imagination? I paced around and that was when I heard another scream.

_Killer._

My heart raced as I ran up to the floor above.

The noise grew louder as I went up. I stopped in my tracks when I reached the fifth floor. I stared at the crowd of approximately thirty, trying to make out the words of their worried murmurs.

They were surrounding someone, or something, which I couldn’t see, even in stilettos. There were few cosplayers, and even fewer weapon-wielded ones.

“If anyone else dares to make another sound, I’ll shoot.” came a gruff, confident voice.

More murmurs and worried faces.

Amongst the crowd, the backs of a pink-haired figure and a dude in a panda suit caught my attention. I walked up to them and whispered. “Hey.”

They turned to me and my suspicions were confirmed. Coffy and Michael the Panda. Together with green-haired Tea and blue-haired Mii, they were the official mascots of Anifiesta.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Coffy, with a look of horror on her face, muttered. “T-They have Mii…”

“This crazy bastard has a gun pointed at Mii,” explained a guy next to them. “He’s asking for everyone here to surrender to him.”

“Why?”

“He wants to be in control. At this point, no one is safe from another. He probably wants to rally a troupe to protect himself.”

“As if we’ll surrender to him!” growled a man beside us.

“But if we don’t, Mii will…”

“Are you freaking idiots listening to me!??” Crazy Bastard yelled. I could see the tip of a bazooka pointed towards the floor-to-ceiling windows.

And then it was fired. The deafening gunshot muffled the screams around us as people rushed to smack their hands against their ears and to take cover. Shards and sparkles of glass rained down on us, scattering all over the place.

“Now,” I heard Crazy Bastard say. “Surrender.”

Coffy was whimpering beside me.

“Take care of this for me,” I said, shoving the half-eaten sandwich into her hands as I made my way into the clearing within the crowd.

“W-Wait, what are you gonna–” Coffy’s voice died down within the roar of the crowd and the maniacal laughter of Crazy Bastard.

The people in the crowd paved the way for me as I walked. They backed off and stared at me. Before long, I found myself face-to-face with Crazy Bastard and his gang of two other men.

One of them was holding Mii’s hands to her back and another was responsible for firing the shot earlier. Crazy Bastard, standing proud and confident, was pointing a gun at Mii’s head. All of them, including the shivering blue-haired lass held hostage, stared at me.

“Oh, what do we have here?” Crazy Bastard cocked his head to the side and raised an eyebrow. “Are you representing these losers to submit?”

“Don’t,” urged someone behind me. “We won’t obey someone like him.”

“I won’t either.” I said. “Let her go.”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“I said, let her go.” I growled.

All three men scoffed and burst into laughter.

“You got a plan?” The guy behind me leaned forward and whispered in my ear. I looked over my shoulder at the Kagami Taiga cosplayer, from the ever-popular _Kuroko no Basuke_ series.

“Plan? What plan?”

“The plan to defeat them, of course!” He gawked at me.

“Oh. I don’t have one.” I said.

“What!?” He exclaimed loudly, causing the three men to stop laughing. “You don’t have a plan? Then you’ve got powerful weapons?” He took a good look at me. “Well, you’re not cosplaying anyone famous, but you should have some weapons, right?”

“Nope. Ain’t got that.”

“What!?” He shouted this time. “Then why the hell did you come out here?”

There were snickers in the crowd, together with sneers and murmurs.

“I came out here to stop them, that’s all.”

Crazy Bastard laughed. “You’re trying to be a heroine? Oh, we’ve seen quite a few of those.” He eyed his left. I followed his gaze towards the two men kneeling at the side, badly bruised and beaten up. “You’re not the first one who came here to save the day, but I’d dare say you’re the first to be here with your hands empty.”

“What would it take for you to let her go?” I asked. Mii’s face was already drenched in tears, and she looked like she’d already given up on struggling.

“Surrender.” Crazy Bastard said simply. “I’m not a patient man.”

I looked at Mii, still whimpering and sobbing as if all hope in humanity was lost, and then at the two wannabe-heroes at the side with their heads hung low in defeat, then at Michael and Coffy who’re watching me expectantly.

Waiting. Waiting for someone, anyone, to do something.

“Give me Mii, and you can have me.” I told Crazy Bastard.

“Now’s not the time for jokes!” yelled Coffy.

“Oh. That was an unintended attempt for a pun, wasn’t it?” I blurted. Coffy’s eyes widened in surprise when I gave her a smile.

“You want us to switch her with you?” Crazy Bastard’s eyes were trailing all over me. I was wearing a long-sleeved black collared shirt with a white ribbon tied loosely around my neck, together with a Japanese schoolgirl’s plaited skirt and black stockings – an appearance too normal to deem me dangerous. After careful consideration of the possibility that I might have had anything up my sleeve–which I suppose Crazy Bastard ultimately thought there be none–he turned his head slightly, signaling his goon to release Mii and grab me by my wrists instead.

Mii fell forward and was caught by the Kagami guy. The crowd closed in on her slightly with concern. Her wrists were reddened by the goon’s indelicate treatment on a lady, and to be honest, I was amazed by her infinite supply of tears and snot.

I was pulled back to Mii’s previous position. Unhappy that the crowd was more concerned about the released hostage than the current one, Crazy Bastard shoved the tip of the gun to my head.

“I’m gonna shoot your little pretend-heroine here if you don’t FREAKING SURRENDER NOW!” He screamed. The crowd backed away a little, all eyes on him and me once more. Coffy and Michael rushed to Mii’s side as soon as she’s released. Now that she’d made sure Mii’s fine, Coffy turned to me worriedly.

“You have five seconds for complete submission.” hissed Crazy Bastard.

“Five…”

“Four…”

“Three…”

“Hey!” I shouted as I try to wring my hands free. Crazy Bastard was crazy enough to stop his countdown to pay me some attention.

“Are you trying to drill a hole in my head before you shoot?” I glanced at the gun shoved harder and harder into my skull. “That would totally defeat the purpose of you shooting, you know.”

I could feel him boiling up beside me, seething. The crowd eased a little, the tension in the air subsiding apace.

I stared up front at Coffy’s direction. She may have thought I was looking at her, because she sort of gave me this half-reassuring smile that tried to say _‘thanks’_ , but I have to admit, I was actually looking at my sandwich in her possession.

“Quit fooling around you bitch!” Crazy Bastard yelled in my ear. “Don’t you know what position you’re in right now!?” He loaded the gun. “Or should I give you a reminder?”

My eyes were still on my sandwich. My hands shifted, testing the strength of his goon’s grip on my wrists.

Crazy Bastard’s hand sort of shook while he reached for the trigger.

Someone in the crowd turned away.

Someone gasped.

The Kagami Taiga watched in horror.

Mii who was lying against Michael mouthed ‘ _no_ ’.

Someone tried to say ‘ _Quick! Surrender!_ ’, but he soon realized it was too late. Someone was going to die, all because it was too late.

Coffy began to tear up.

And in my stiletto heels, I jumped. My hands were now bearing my weight, and in his surprise, the goon released me. I reached out to snatch the gun right before I fell, and because Crazy Bastard and the goon were too slow to react, my heels dug into each of their foot when I landed.

They started to scream in the agonizing pain, and I took the chance to swivel around and kick the other goon in the gut. He dropped the bazooka and fell back.

“You little–” Crazy Bastard glared at me as I turned round to point the gun at him.

“You really should hold your weapons tight because that grip was not manly at all.” I said, glancing at the goon clutching his right foot and the other clutching his stomach. “Now you surrender, Crazy Bastard.”

“Wha–Crazy Bastard!? How dare you–”

He didn’t finish, because then the Kagami Taiga came forth and kicked him hard in places he’d feel twice the pain for, and soon the crowd was ganging up on them triumphantly.

I rubbed my wrist, trying to ease the sore.

“You…”

“How’s Mii?” I asked quickly. Coffy turned to her and back at me.

“T-Thank you…” Mii muttered, hiding sheepishly behind the panda as she avoided my gaze. “Mii thought you were just a useless brat trying to get some glory, but…it looks like Mii was wrong, okay?” She shouted that last part defiantly.

“Mii’s not someone who admits things like these, so it’s hard for her.” said Coffy as she patted her on the head.

I watched them and said. “C’mon. Let’s trade.”

“Trade?”

“The gun for my sandwich.”

“Oh…” Coffy looked down at her hands, almost as if she’s noticing its presence for the first time. “Here.”

I gave her the gun in return. “For safety reasons.”

I turned back at the goons who’re now tied up. Some dude was yelling at Crazy Bastard and he was yelling back while a few girls were hitting the goons in the heads.

“Wow. I actually feel sorry for them.” said Michael, whom I didn’t know could speak in his panda outfit with the whole transformation thing going on.

“Don’t be.” I took a bite out of my sandwich. “They have thick skulls. They’ll be fine.”

“Coffy! Mii!” We turned to the escalator where a green-haired lad was running up. He stopped as he took in the chaotic scene before him. “What’s going on…?”

“Tea!” shouted Mii while leaping into his arms.

“Mii!” He gasped. “What happened to you? You look terrible.”

“Tea…there were bad people…” She wailed. Coffy and Michael walked up to him.

I glanced at the panda, wondering if he was hurt when his green-haired mascot buddy completely missed shouting his name earlier. But it’s hard to tell with him in the suit.

I took the chance to gobble up the food, watching Tea’s many expressions as the others narrated the incident to him. He glanced over at me at some point, to which I nodded in acknowledgement with stuffed bread and lettuce in my mouth.

“We’re gonna take them to the committee members.” Kagami Taiga walked up to me. “They’ll know what to do.”

I doubted they would, but I said nothing to that.

“Thanks for earlier.” He said as we watched some men haul the goons up to their feet. Their injured feet.

“You were pretty reckless back there,” he smiled. “But admirable.”

I didn’t say anything.

“Most of us were taking our time conjuring up solutions and plans, but you beat us to it with nothing on your plate.” He turned to look at me, but I don’t return his gaze.

“They’ve never killed.” I said. “They were scared to pull the trigger, so that was a plus for me.”

“That’s really cool and all, but you gotta be careful.” His voice got lower. “I heard there’re around five people dead now.”

_Now_ I look at him.

He gave me a pat on the shoulder and looked me in the eye. “I don’t know if people really die if they die here, I mean, no one really knows, right? But don’t throw your life away for people you don’t know.” His hands rested on my shoulders. “It’s not worth it.”

I just kept staring at him.

“Just some advice…” He let go of me, looking a little awkward like he might have offended me somehow.

I don’t stop staring at him.

“I’ll uh…take them to the committees…” He mumbled as he scratched the back of his head, backing away from my unrelenting stare.

“You’re…” He stopped and listened. “You’re really good-looking, you know that?” I blinked at him.

He took a few steps back, looking all embarrassed and blushy yet undeniably happy in an unmanly fashion.

“Uh…thanks…”

“I guess you’ve never been complimented before.” I said.

“No one’s ever been so straightforward, you idiot!” He rebuked in a Kagami-like manner.

I shrugged. “You’re hot, and there aren’t many hot guys around lately so you should be thankful.”

“…okay…?” His eyes darted around the place, as if searching for un-awkward words, if any, to fill the silence. “Look. I’m trying to be nice to a girl here, but hell, I’m gonna just say it–you’re totally creeping me out.” He cringed.

I gave him another smile–another apparently creepy smile–before I turned to walk away.

“If you really think that, you’d better watch out.” I said with my back facing him.

“What? Why?” He gave a gasp. “Are you thinking of stalking me?”

“Nope. But I don’t need to. All the fangirls here will do the job just fine.” I looked over my shoulder to catch his expression before flashing another grin at him. If he couldn’t take the stalking-over-pretty-boys thing, he should’ve thought twice before showing up at an ACG convention with that goddamn handsome face and expect to go home intact.

I left him there gaping as I strode off, my heels crushing the glass shards beneath me.

* * *

“Wait!” Coffy called out behind me.

I stopped and turned, cocking my head.

She and Tea ran up to me. “We haven’t had the chance to thank you yet!”

“Oh.” I said. “You’re welcome.”

“We haven’t even said anything!” She exclaimed. She gave Tea a look, who then whispered a _what?_ , and she nudged him so hard he staggered backwards a few steps while clutching his arm with a pained gasp.

She gave him a whole bunch of implicative looks then, her eyes darting from me to him and back to me.

Tea followed her gaze and heaved a sigh. “Fine.” He mumbled.

A wide grin spread across Coffy’s face as she turned back to face me. She cleared her throat, trying to seem formal but hardly trying hard enough to hide her smile.

“We, the official mascots of Anifiesta,” She gestured to herself and the others. “…would like to thank you for everything.”

“As you know very well, we official mascot cosplayers are all committee members of Anifiesta.” She leaned forward for no apparent reason. “The higher ranking senior ones, if I may add.”

“Um…okay?” I raised an eyebrow.

“So, we know stuff about Anifiesta that other attendees don’t.”

“You mean–”

“No, this whole cosplay-turned-real thing is beyond us.” Tea put a hand on Coffy’s shoulder. “I’ll take it from here.”

“To express our gratitude, we’d like to give you–” The door leading to the hall beside us burst open, startling all of us.

A panicked committee member rushed out, and for the first time since I approached the food counter, I caught a glimpse of the happenings in the hall.

And it was complete hell.

My eyes grew wide in horror, and from the corner of my eye, I saw Coffy cover her mouth with a hand in shock.

“No…” Tea muttered under his breath.

“Coffy! Tea!” cried the committee member.

“Jeffrey…what is this…” Tea put his hands on his shoulder and shook him hard. “What the hell is going on here!??”

If Tea and I were standing another five steps apart, I doubt I could’ve heard him over the roar of the battlefield.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coffy, Tea, Mi and Michael are the names of the actual mascots of Comic Fiesta. You can check out what they look like at the Comic Fiesta website. (There's another mascot called Yin Yong but I somehow couldn't remember him when I wrote this chapter so sadly he won't be included in the story...)


	3. We Meet

You’d think that after watching all sorts of animes with battles and death and gore, you’d be ready to see all those things for real. But no, being unready isn’t even close to describing it.

The hall was filled with the clash of metal and cries of the injured. But amidst the battle, _red_ was all I saw.

The committee member, Jeffrey, was shouting a bunch of incoherent words to Tea while Coffy and I watched the scene in horror.

There were people limping around with one foot missing, some others lying still in pools of blood, and a whole lot more waving their weapons at one another.

I could feel my knees growing weak, and it was hard to keep myself from shuddering.

“I got it. We’ve gotta report to Nerd.” I heard Tea say after a long discussion with Jeffrey. “C’mon.”

Jeffrey, whom I realized was missing a chunk of flesh on his left upper arm, nodded while cringing in pain.

“You need to get that healed.” I said. Coffy gasped in horror as soon as she saw all the blood gushing out of the wound (she hadn’t seen it since she’d been standing on his right).

Jeffrey looked at me for a moment and shook his head. “We don’t have time for that.”

“It’s dangerous to walk around with a wound that deep. You could get an infection or risk losing too much blood.” I insisted. “I’ll get you a healer. If all the cosplayers here are able to wield actual powers from their cosplay, I’m sure there’re a lot of them out there who have magical healing powers.”

I took a step towards the hall when he stopped me with his good arm. “Like I said, we don’t have time for that. We need to warn the president and come up with a solution, quick.”

“You might be able to hold the pain now, but it’s only going to get worse if it’s not treated.” I said. “By then, you won’t even be able to talk without gritting your teeth.”

“She’s right.” nodded Tea. “If you won’t let her find a healer, then we’ll have to get one on our way there.”

Jeffrey fell silent for a moment before nodding.

“Great. Let’s go.”

“Wait.” said Coffy as she turned to me. Her eyes showed recovery from the shock. “What’s your name?”

“Han Rae-yeon.” I said.

She paused. “Weird name.” She began to fish around her pocket. “Well then, Rae,” she took out something and pressed it firmly into my hand. The cold metal rested in my palm. “Here’s our token of appreciation. I would’ve liked to talk to you about it, but looks like there’s no time now.”

She held my gaze. “I’m sure it’ll come in handy sooner or later. Don’t ever lose it.” She quickly nodded to Jeffrey and Tea, who then made their way in sync down the hallway towards the meeting room.

I watched them leave before uncurling my fingers. I stared at the golden key in my possession. I reached into my pocket and took out a long metal chain. I'd just brought it along to Anifiesta because it looked like a cosplay-worthy item, but looks like it came in handy after all. Stringing the chain through the key, I tied it around my neck. My fingers lingered on it for a moment longer before I decided to hide it beneath my shirt.

Another scream made me whip my head towards the hall.

I gulped, watching the battle unfold before my eyes. I shivered as my knees shook.

I felt so very small.

Balling my hands into fists, I ran in.

* * *

“Are you okay?” I knelt down beside the bespectacled girl and looked at the cut on her shoulder.

She blinked at me speechlessly.

“It’s not a very deep wound. Don’t worry.” I said as I tore a piece of fabric off the sleeve of my shirt. “You need to take off your shirt for me to stop the bleeding.”

She unbuttoned the top button hesitantly and pulled the sleeve down her shoulder. I pressed my torn sleeve against her wound. She winced but didn’t complain.

I found her by the side of the hall, and since the main action was centered in the middle, most of the injured tried to stay small at the side, hoping to go by unnoticed.

“Can you tell me what’s going on here?”

“Can’t you tell? People are fighting.”

“I can see that. I mean, why are they fighting?”

She gestured with her chin towards the center of the hall. I followed her gaze.

“See that guy over there? The one wearing white armor with a blue sword?”

“Yeah. Who’s he supposed to be cosplaying as? I don’t recognize the character.”

She shrugged. “I don’t know either. But he’s our ringleader.”

“Our?”

A man was flung towards us. We watched in horror as he crashed into the wall with such great force the wall cracked.

“Are you okay!?” I shouted.

He cried out in pain as he landed on the floor. I leaned forward and rolled him over onto his back. He narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth, trying to hold himself together. I checked for any signs of wounds on him immediately.

“Gray!” The girl called.

The Gray Fullbuster cosplayer was toned and muscular, just like the actual _Fairy Tail_ character, but judging by his face, he didn’t look older than seventeen.

“You’re okay.” I said. “No evident injuries, but quite beaten up.”

The girl sighed in relief as I helped him up.

“Thanks.” He turned from me to the girl.

“Em, you okay?” He gasped. “What’s with your shoulder?”

“I’m fine.” She quickly pulled up her shirt and buttoned it in embarrassment.

“It doesn’t seem very fine to me!” exclaimed the cosplayer. “Let me see the wound.”

“Wha-” The girl’s cheeks grew red. “No, I’m okay! This person helped me out, so I’m fine.”

The cosplayer turned to me. “You did? Thanks.”

“It’s nothing.” I smiled. “What’re your names? And like I asked her before, what’s with all these people fighting?”

“I’m Emma,” said the girl. “I don’t really fancy cosplaying, but Gray does.”

“I’m going by Gray’s name while I’m cosplaying him.” He ruffled his hair. “And about what’s happening here…”

“It was when the incident began, when someone was injured in the crowd a few hours ago. Everyone was freaking out, and suddenly this guy who was near us in the crowd–”

“That guy?" I interrupted, pointing at the guy in white armor. I looked at him in time to see him pierce a non-cosplayer in the gut, and I turned away a little too late.

Emma gulped, probably also feeling as nauseated as I did. “…yeah, that guy.”

“He told the people in our area–around forty of us, I think?” Gray turned to Emma for confirmation, who nodded. “Yeah, forty. So he told us that he’ll protect us from the killer as long as we pledge allegiance to him while this thing is going on.”

“We didn’t know what was happening to us…we were all too scared. The screams, the running, the fear in everyone’s eyes…it was all too much…” muttered Emma.

“And since most of the people in the crowd were non-cosplayers, they didn’t have the means to protect themselves, so they agreed to follow him without much thinking.” Gray lowered his head. “It was happening too fast…and I wasn’t familiar with using actual Ice Magic yet.”

“Gray…”

“And I thought it would put Em in danger if I couldn’t use magic, so…”

“But you can, can’t you?” I raised an eyebrow. “You just didn’t try it.”

The blue-haired boy turned away.

“S-So he led us to different halls to hide…” continued Emma. “…but whenever he needed something, he’d send one of us to go, such as getting food and scouting the halls for any signs of enemies. When there were other people around in the halls we ventured into, Guntora would try to gauge their abilities by engaging in unnecessary battles.”

“By then, a lot of the stronger attendees have already formed their own teams and groups, so when Guntora couldn’t handle them alone, he’d randomly send one of us–people he knew wouldn’t and couldn’t fight–to the frontlines. That’s when we got these injuries.”

“…wow, a lot has happened in these few hours.” I said.

They nodded in unison.

“So this is one of those unnecessary battles?” I stood up, looking at the scene.

“Yes. Guntora would provoke them intentionally to get them to fight.” said Emma.

I watched Guntora. He moved swiftly in the armor, and even from where I was standing, I could sense his joy. The joy he finds from fighting, from having power.

“An addicted gamer…” I muttered. His opponent was keeping up fairly well in terms of swordplay, but evidently lacked the competitiveness I could feel from Guntora.

“How does Guntora’s battles end?” I asked, not taking my sight off of him.

“Uhm…he either inflicts near-fatal wounds or push his opponents into submission.”

“Near-fatal? So he hasn’t killed anyone?”

“Well…most of the people he defeated had healers by their sides, so we weren’t really worried about them. But this battle...” Gray clenched his fists. “This battle is on a whole different level from the others!”

“Their leader is strong.” commented Emma.

“The one Guntora’s fighting? That Kirito from _Sword Art Online_?”

“Yeah. He’s not backing down, even though Guntora’s forcing his way through. Many of that Kirito’s subordinates have already been wounded by him, but he’s not giving up yet.”

“But if he doesn’t stop fighting, the rest of us will have to keep fighting his men too.” said Gray. “Guntora broke someone’s arm for refusing to fight.”

“Doesn’t that mean that you two will have to get back out there?”

Both of them turned away in silence.

“I see.” I stared at the leaders engaging in battle as I took a steps forward. “Don’t go out there.”

“Wait. What do you think you’re doing?” Emma grabbed my arm, stopping me. “You’re not thinking of going out there, are you?”

I didn’t answer.

“Are you crazy? Or just stupid?” exclaimed Gray. “Haven’t you been listening to us at all? You’re totally underestimating the situation here if you think you can just waltz in there and not get hurt. We should try to get out of here while we still can.”

I glared at him. “Nobody ever said anything about not getting hurt.” I brushed off Emma’s hand rudely, not taking my eyes off of him. “What I hate more than not doing anything is running away.”

Gray gaped speechlessly. Emma stared at me a little dumbfounded, unable to comprehend my anger. I held their gazes a little longer before turning away.

I ran towards the two leaders in battle, dodging people along my way.

“Who’re you?” screamed a non-cosplayer who appeared in my way, pointing his sword at me. His hands were trembling. “You’re not from Guntora’s side; I’ve never seen you before!”

“Where did you get that weapon?” I asked warily.

“We got it from the merchandise booths. They’ve all turned into real swords, and–” He suddenly waved his sword at me, causing me to leapt back in surprise. He continued to swing it around, and I could only dodge it on defense.

“Sorry…” He muttered. “Guntora’s looking this way, so–”

I tripped over my other foot, causing me to lose my pace.

_Damn!_ I thought as I cursed the moment I thought wearing stiletto heels to Anifiesta was a good idea.

Both of us widened our eyes, but it was too late for him to pull back. My heart stopped for a moment as everything around us came to a standstill.

The sword pierced through my abdomen, causing a backflow of something in my throat which I eventually coughed out as blood. The excruciating pain swept over me before every part of my lower body became numb. I slumped onto my knees.

The sword wielder released the sword and backed away in shock. He let out soft cries of horror.

The smell of blood made my head spin, and the metallic taste of blood swirling along my taste buds brought up an urge to puke, but I did my best to hold my ground.

It was the same recurring scene I’ve encountered in many different animes and mangas; the (some of the time) fatal sword stab. I’d expected it to be pretty bad, but having lived quite a good life without any wounds deeper than light bruises and paper cuts, this was a very far stretch for me.

My vision became hazy, and I couldn’t make out the words the man who impaled me was saying (though it seemed clear that they were all words of apology). My hand went to my wound, where I instantly felt the sticky fluid smear across my palm.

I paused. It seemed quite hard, and probably nothing I can bear, but I had to do it anyway.

Both my hands reached for the sword. I couldn’t manage a stable grip on its blade with my hands dancing wildly against my will. I took a deep breath and began to attempt pulling the sword out of me.

I stopped after barely moving it an inch. The pain was unbearable. Blood was dripping down my abdomen and running down my legs from the wound. I stared at the pool of blood forming below me.

“Damn…!” I shouted as best as I could. “Someone…get this thing…out of me!”

A few heads turned to me, but no one moved. The guy who impaled me seemed too stunned to do anything, let alone help out.

I winced and cried out as the blade shifted. My vision was getting worse by the second, and I hadn’t realized that someone was holding the hilt of the sword, standing right in front of me.

“There’s no point in trying to hurt me any further…” I mumbled, wondering if he was friend or foe.

“So…help me get this thing out…thanks…”

"Are you crazy? If I pulled it out now, you'll die," came the stranger's voice.

I couldn’t see what sort of facial expression he was making, but I could feel his grip on the sword tighten.

And I braced myself for the worst.

* * *

I was seeing nothing, hearing nothing, and feeling nothing. The battle scene, the injured; the battle cries, the wails and pleas; the pain, the torturous pain.

Nothing.

“Now would be the time for you to pass out,” he whispered in my ear.

I felt warmth enclosing me as I fell into him. I was too weak to speak, too weak to budge.

“Hang in there,” he said. “I’m getting you a healer.”

My droopy eyes could only take in the blinding white light of the halls, so looking at the face of my savior was completely out of the question.

I felt myself heaved up and moved hurriedly.

“She needs medical attention ASAP!” He yelled. “I need a healer! Any healers around!?”

I heard a few voices surround me as I felt the touch of the cold floor against my back.

“This will only take a while,” came a soft feminine voice.

And she was right. Within minutes I could feel all four of my limbs, and my senses came running back to me.

I stretched my toes as my hand unconsciously went to my wound. A hand stopped me.

“Don’t touch it yet.”

I took a good look at my healer, now that my vision was back to normal. She was a Haruno Sakura cosplayer, the character from the ever-popular _Naruto_ series. Her pink hair and green eyes were unmistakable.

“I don’t know much about the actual medical field. I just did what I thought would feel like having chakra coming out of your palms to heal, so I’m not very confident in my skills. You shouldn’t do anything extreme with your wound.” She said.

“Thank you,” I croaked. The taste of blood in my mouth served as a grave reminder that I’d almost died if not for her and–

I tried to sit up, my eyes scanning the hall.

“What did I say about doing something extreme!?” reprimanded the Sakura. But she helped me up regardless of it.

“Where’s that guy?” I asked. “The one who…”

My voice drifted off as Sakura turned to the battlefield pointing. My eyes followed the direction, and for the first time since I was healed, I realized that the battle cries have died down. The hall was only filled with murmurs.

Guntora had his sword lowered and was facing Kirito, who was in an equally vulnerable position. They were shooting daggers with their glares, but neither of them moved.

I stared at the orange-haired man standing between them, hands extended to hold each of them back. He was in a cautious stance, his eyes darting from Kirito to Guntora. And his eyes landed on me.

“That’s your savior. That Lavi cosplayer.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please do give me your feedback! Thank you :)


	4. Hibiki

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. I feel like I've been gone for a millennium. Now that my AS exams are officially over, I'm back in full swing! I originally had a timeline in which I'd planned out when each chapter was going to be published, but looking at how I'm still hanging on to the devil that is procrastination, I'm going to be needing a new plan. Anyways, since Comic Fiesta is drawing near (it's a few weeks away!), we have a double chapter update today!

“Now apologize.”

There was silence. Everyone held their breaths, anticipating the end of the whole fiasco. The men frowned at one another, feigning ignorance. The Lavi cosplayer sighed.

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself,” hissed Guntora. “We agreed to pull back, but that’s all. Don’t push your luck, bastard.”

“I want an end to this whole thing,” said Kirito. “If you don’t want to apologize, fine. In return, I’m taking custody of all the non-cosplayers you forced to fight.”

“What?” Guntora laughed. “Who’re you to order me around? I could kill you right here if I want to.”

“But you won’t.” said the Lavi cosplayer confidently. “Because what you’ve done had awakened the power within all these cosplayers who wouldn’t have known how to utilize it if they weren’t forced to fight. By you.”

Guntora took a good look around him. Everyone was guarded and wary now–one wrong move will lead to his demise.

“Think carefully, Guntora. You’re a smart gamer.” said Kirito. “You know the power in quantity.”

Guntora clicked his tongue in frustration. “What are you going to do with me? Kill me?”

Kirito and the Lavi cosplayer exchanged glances. It was evident from their faces that he didn’t have the answer to his question.

“We’ll take you to the president of the committees.” I walked over with a careful hand over my wound. “We’ll leave it to him to decide.”

I saw a few nods from the people around us. The battle had stopped, and this was the conclusion to it. Everyone in Hall Nine had lowered their weapons and was standing around to see how it would end between Guntora and Kirito.

“Ha!” laughed Guntora, again. “The president of the committee? _Please_. With so many cosplayers owning such extraordinary strengths and powers, that normal human doesn’t stand a chance against anyone.” He burst into laughter.

“How’d you know the president is just a normal human?” I asked. “He’s never shown his face in public before, not even in the past nine years of Anifiesta.”

I leaned close to his ear. “And enigmatic people are always full of surprises, wouldn’t you agree?”

His eyes widened, looking as though he wanted to swear but never got the chance to, because that’s when Lavi kneed him in the gut.

Guntora coughed and fell forward, rendered unconscious by the blow.

I took a few steps backwards, letting out a sigh of relief as he hit the floor.

“You’re quite the shameless lady, aren’t you?” Gray asked from behind.

I looked over my shoulder at the two approaching figures.

“You know, if that Sakura healer wasn’t around, you really would be dead now!” exclaimed Emma.

My hand pressed against my front. “I know.”

“What the hell were you thinking? I mean, no weapons, no powers, and you just rush into the battlefield like that? We’re not in an anime where people don’t die – heck, there are even animes where everyone dies. This is real, you know, and you just–”

Gray groaned in exasperation, throwing his hands up in annoyance.

“We’re just very worried,” said Emma. “And what you just did there–” She glanced over at the unconscious Guntora. I followed her gaze, only to realize that the Lavi cosplayer and Kirito were frozen in their positions, looking at us. “–Guntora could’ve broken your arm or something. You dare to provoke him like that? Weren’t you scared at all that you might not make it out of this convention center in one piece?”

“I am now.” I told Emma.

“Then–”

“But not when I decided to rush in here.” I interrupted. “I don’t think in situations. I act.”

“Acted stupidly, you did,” came my savior’s voice. “What’s the point of action if it’s not going to change anything?”

I frowned at him as Kirito knelt down to sling Guntora’s arm over his shoulder.

“Was getting stabbed in the gut and dying here going to change anything?” He sighed. “Well, that doesn’t really matter anymore, since it’s over.”

Turning to the others, he yelled. “Everyone who’s injured should get themselves healed immediately.”

“And those of you who’re non-cosplayers should travel with some protection.” Kirito chimed in. “Get a cosplayer who could fight as a companion. It’s much safer that way.”

There were many nods as the crowd dispersed to the side of the hall, mostly looking for healers and bodyguards.

“Well then. Where’s this oh-mighty president of ours?” asked Kirito with a grin.

“You’re really taking him there?” I stared at him. “I don’t know what the president will do to him though.”

“You said it yourself, enigmatic people always have something up their sleeves.”

“Well, that wasn’t exactly what I said…”

“It’s close. So where is he?”

“In the meeting room at the side of Hall One.”

“Got it.” He whipped his head around. “Anyone who wants to travel with me gather round! We’ll deliver Guntora to the detainment center then go on an adventure!”

Loud cheers echoed in the hall.

“Kirito doesn’t travel in a team, he goes solo,” joked a non-cosplayer.

“He would, for a while,” He smiled. “Until he meets his Asuna.”

The crowd burst into laughter as the atmosphere regained its supposed light-heartedness of ACG events.

“So what are you going to do from now on?” I asked Gray and Emma.

They exchanged glances. “I’ll probably go find some Fairy Tail cosplayers. Better to stick to my own kind, I suppose.”

Gray turned to Emma, who smiled in agreement.

“It’s settled, then.” She said. “Oh yes, you have our names, but we don’t have yours.”

“I’m Rae. Han Rae-yeon.” I said.

“Han Rae-yeon? Is that a Korean name?” Gray laughed. “Who uses Korean names at ACG events?”

“I do, and because of that, I’m pretty sure you’ll remember my name well.”

“Oh, we will.” Emma stepped forward and held my hands in hers. “We can’t thank you enough for helping us earlier.”

“I…only wish I could’ve done more.” My gaze fell, recalling my failed attempt to rush into the battlefield.

“You have to be careful,” Emma’s grip grew tight. “No matter what your principles are, it’s not right to act impetuously. You should’ve watched enough anime to know that.”

“Yeah, but–”

“C’mon, Em. We gotta go,” hurried Gray. “It’s nighttime already.”

“Nighttime!?” We exclaimed in unison.

We couldn’t tell at all from being in the halls. I checked my watch, and sure enough, it was already 8:25pm.

“That means we’ve been stuck in here for almost a day!” cried Emma.

“Exactly why we need to go find more people.” said Gray. “We need to get answers.”

“Okay…” Emma turned back to me, her eyes lighting up. “Do you want to come with us, Rae? It’s better for you to go about with Gray, since he can use magic.”

I hesitated, whipping my head around to take in the situation. Most people have formed their own groups and were already leaving Hall Nine. My eyes scanned for a certain orange-haired cosplayer.

I caught a glimpse of a similar figure heading towards Hall Ten.

I paused as scenarios and questions ran in my mind. “No…” I muttered. Turning back to Emma, I smiled. “This is goodbye, Emma.”

“What? But–”

“I’ll see you again…” Thinking about our circumstances in the situation–being trapped in the convention center with a killer lurking within the mass–was overwhelming. Under my breath, I mumbled. “…or maybe not…”

“You try to stay out of trouble.” Gray advised. “Though the chances of that are close to naught.”

I laughed and waved goodbye.

* * *

“Wait!” I called.

He didn’t even turn, let alone stop. “Anything I can help you with?”

“I want to thank you.” I said, catching up to him. “For helping me earlier.”

His footfalls grew smaller and came to a halt. He turned to look at me.

“Helping you? Oh, right, right. Yeah, just doing what I should.”

“I’m eternally grateful.” I lowered my head to an overstated 90 degree bow.

“Whoa, whoa. It’s fine, really.”

I lifted my head, my eyes meeting his. I stared at him, long and hard. He did the same, and the two of us were probably just waiting for the other to speak up first.

He raised an eyebrow after a while. “Is…there anything on my face?”

“No.” I turned away smiling. “But maybe there was something on mine.”

We both laughed.

I caught up to him in the pathway. Other than the hallways outside where I came in from earlier, there were smaller pathways connected between two halls which could lead us to the following halls.

There were a few people crossing from Hall Ten to Hall Nine and vice-versa, some sauntering, unsure of what is left to do after a whole day trapped here, and some pacing hurriedly, determined to find a way out as soon as possible.

“I’m Hibiki.” He said, extending a hand.

“I’m Han Rae-yeon.” I shook his hand, waiting for an expected response.

“Is…that your real name? It’s not, right?” He asked, as expected.

“No, it’s the name I use when I’m here at Anifiesta.” I said. “I doubt Hibiki is your real name.”

He grinned. “No, it isn’t. So what should I call you? Rae-yeon?”

“Rae is fine.” I eyed the two cosplayers who headed towards Hall Ten hurriedly. It was a Gon and a Killua, both characters from the manga _Hunter x Hunter_.

“I wonder what else is going on around here?” asked Hibiki, following my gaze.

I looked at him, eyes questioning.

“You’ve probably realized that a lot has happened in just one day.” He said while following the two cosplayers. I kept to his pace.

“This is what happens when ordinary people receive extraordinary power. They show their true nature.” His eyes were distant, and as he looked like he was muttering to himself rather than talking to me, I remained silent.

I stared up front, considering Hibiki’s words. What exactly was waiting for us in the next hall? I’ve witnessed more violence and gore in less than twenty-four hours than I ever would in a lifetime. The thought made me shudder as I involuntarily recalled the incidents of the day.

My hand went up to my wound, where I could still feel the sticky blood stains left on my shirt. There was a hole in it – a reminder once again that I nearly went to the other world because of a stupid action.

“Does it still hurt?” Hibiki’s voice snapped me out of my worry.

“What?”

“Your wound. Are you feeling the aftereffects?”

“Oh…” My head was pounding and I did feel sick, but I contemplated whether I should tell him. Getting him to help me earlier was good enough. I couldn’t possibly make him worry even more.

“Here,” his hand rested on my shoulder, stopping me. “Let me see it.”

“What? No, I’m fine, really–”

I backed off as he reached for my shirt.

He raised an eyebrow at my defense. I froze, wondering if what I did had offended his good intentions.

He stared at me, apparently upset, and took a step towards me.

I stepped back by reflex.

Before I knew it, his hands reached for my face.

“Ouch!” I yelped as he pinched my cheeks.

“I’m just trying to help,” he said. “You’re no medic; how would you know if the wound is no longer a life threat?”

“Okay…” I winced. “But please take your hands off my face…”

He released me, causing me to stumble backwards as I rubbed my sore cheeks.

I sighed unhappily as I reluctantly lifted my shirt to reveal my belly. Hibiki bent down to take a close look at the wound. I shifted uncomfortably under his scrutiny.

“Hmm…it’s gonna leave a scar.”

“Oh…” I lowered my head to look at it. There was a scar of around five inches stretching from my left abdomen to my waist. I was suddenly very conscious of it.

“Are you gonna be okay with it?”

“Okay with it? I guess so…since it’s too late to change anything now.”

I saw a grin on his face as he looked at me.

“We’re surrounded by cosplayers with actual superpowers! Anything’s possible now.” He smiled.

“It’s fine. It’s a good reminder for myself, since I–what are you doing!?”

I stepped back until my back was against the wall, my hand pulling down my shirt. I stared at his outstretched fingers.

“I just wanted to touch it to see if it’s too deep.” He tilted his head innocently. I could feel my face burning at his unintentional advances. No, I’m not even sure if they were unintentional at all.

“I-I’m…uh…let’s go to the next hall!” My words came out in a muddle as I hurriedly paced to Hall Ten.

I heard Hibiki chuckle as he followed.


	5. The Alliance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you haven't checked out Chapter 4: Hibiki yet, you should because we have a double chapter update today!

“It’s getting late,” said Hibiki as he pulled up his sleeve to check his watch.

The groups of attendees in Hall Ten were huddled to the walls, preparing to spend the night there...not that anyone had any other choice.

“Twelve-thirty isn’t late!” I exclaimed. I immediately received a few loud shushes.

Hibiki and I were the only ones left standing in the hall. The others who weren’t asleep were either polishing their blades, staring blankly at the floor or trying to weep as quietly as possible in the silence.

People clicked their tongues at a brunette curled up at the side as the tapping on his phone got so frantic that it became annoying.

I looked at the brunette. I’ve seen eyes like that. I’ve been looking at them since the start of the incident. The fear and despair behind his cerulean contact lenses could drown all those who came into eye contact.

Hibiki grabbed my arm. It was only then when I realized that I’ve been backing away. He kept his gaze straight at the panicking brunette without a word.

“It’s useless. There’s no signal here,” shouted a gruff voice from the other end of the hall.

“No…no…there is! There is a signal here!” He got up to his feet and showed the screen of his phone to the others.

We were silent as we listened to the regular beeping of the line.

“I-I’ll show you!!” He screamed as he went back to fumbling buttons on his device. “I’ll show you! I’ll…I’ll get outta here!! This is just a bad dream! Yeah…that’s right…a bad dream! That’s what it is!”

All eyes were on the girl approaching him. The Rin Nomura cosplayer put a hand on his shoulder gently.

“You’re having an anxiety attack. I think you should calm down. We’ll talk about this later, okay?”

The brunette’s thumbs froze in place, his head turning to face her like a clockwork doll.

“He can’t take it…” whispered a woman to her friend worriedly. “He can’t accept reality…”

“He’s not the only one…” The friend buried her face in the woman's shoulder.

The brown-haired cosplayer from the _Naruto_ series didn’t flinch from his unrelenting gaze at all. Her lips curled in a small smile as she patted his shoulder.

“It’s okay…we all feel this way.” Her voice was soothing and it seemed to take effect on many of us present in the hall. “All the more reason we should stick together, right?”

The cosplayers all got on guard at the sight of the brunette balling his hands into fists. Their hands were on their weapons, and even Hibiki and I prepared ourselves for the worst.

A few seconds passed with held breaths. The next few were of relieved sighs as the brunette dropped his gaze to the floor, his fist released.

The weapons were dropped as well.

“For a moment there I thought that Rin could’ve gotten seriously hurt,” a girl with a high ponytail murmured.

The Rin cosplayer nodded to thank our concern, then turned back to the brunette.

“Get some sleep. We’ll find a way out tomorrow, okay?”

The brunette tilted his head slightly, close enough to pass as a nod.

Hibiki and I watched in silence.

“So, what should we do?” I asked. Hibiki didn’t seem particularly exhausted, and I’m pretty sure we could use the chance we have to explore the halls better. “Keep going?”

“You should rest.” He said as he stared at the people around us.

“I’m still okay. No anime-marathoner dozes off at twelve-thirty.” I gave him a grin.

“It’s been a long day for everyone. You sure you’re not tired? You should be after all that. I mean, of course I’m still good, but I’m not the one who–”

“Great. Let’s go.” I interrupted, my feet already on the move.

He sighed as he followed me out into the hallways.

* * *

Even without the lights, the moonlight was bright enough for us to see everything we needed to.

I stopped as soon as I stepped out. The barrier was still there, mildly visible. It was slightly further from the windows, enclosing the entire convention centre and everyone in it.

Hibiki came up next to me and the next thing I knew, I was given an incredibly painful smack on the head.

“Ouch!” I backed away, losing my balance a slightly on my heels. “What did you do that for!?”

My voice echoed in the empty hallway.

“Just wanted to know if I’m dreaming.” He winked.

“You’re supposed to do that to yourself, not someone else!!” I screamed. He turned back to the glass windows without another word. The shadows beneath out feet stretched out longer than what our size should’ve amounted to.

Perhaps that’s a measure of what we’re really capable of? Beyond the limitations of the exterior, maybe deep inside, we could really do something incredible to save ourselves from this situation.

Both of us stared at the night sky beyond the windows, our minds dwelling on different concerns, and we allowed each other the temporary silence we needed to pull ourselves together.

Cosplayers with actual powers…

Weapons that really kill…

Battles among the attendees…

The outcome of the staff meeting…

The faces of all the wounded…

My close encounter with death…

Coffee’s key…

My hand went to the cold metal below my neck and I gulped. All the fear and impetuosity swallowed together, buried deep within me.

“Are you okay?” Hibiki asked without looking me in the eye.

“I’m fine. The wound doesn’t hurt anymore.”

“That’s not what I meant.” He turned to me, his penetrating gaze studying me.

I lowered my head under his scrutiny. “Of course I’m fine,” I mumbled, my voice small and almost inaudible.

“You’ve been weird since we saw that guy freak out,” Hibiki pressed on. “If you’re worried about getting hurt again, well you don’t have to. I’m here.”

“I just need some time alone, that’s all.” I said. “I appreciate your notion to help the weak, but going about this under the protection of a stranger is just not what I picture myself doing.”

I turned my back to him, prepared to venture the undiscovered halls. Alone.

“Are you sure? If someone tries to attack you, then–”

“Then I’ll do something about it.” Under my breath, I added. “Somehow.”

“Thank you for saving my life, Hibiki.” I looked over my shoulder and smiled. “I’m forever indebted to you.”

His lips parted, but no words were formed.

I held his gaze a little longer. “Goodbye.”

The sound of my footsteps echoed in the silence. I tried to listen to Hibiki’s retreating steps, but he wasn’t moving at all.

I pushed that unfamiliar sense of loneliness to a corner of my heart. I’ve been travelling in solitude all this while. There’s no reason why I can’t do it again.

* * *

“What do you think you’re doing?” My footsteps came to a halt. The footfalls behind me mimicked my movement.

“Any idea where we’re going?” He asked. Even with my back to him, I could feel him grinning.

“Uh, whatever happened to ‘goodbye’?” I whipped my head around with a frown.

“I don’t see why you have to push people away when it’s safer not to.” He tilted his head, questioning. “Or do you have an issue with trust?”

“I have an issue with being weak, okay? I don’t want to end up like those damsels in animes whom I hate so much.”

He paused, and for once he actually seemed to be taking my words seriously. “I see.”

“So if you’ll excuse me,” I shot him a glance and turned.

“Wait. So if I don’t try to make you seem like a damsel you don’t mind my presence?”

“Your motives are suspicious, Hibiki- _san_. There are plenty of attendees out there who need your Lavi powers.” I paused. “Unless if I’m the weakest one out here, which will be a huge insult.”

“What does it take for you to not get so conscious about this whole weak and strong thing?” Hibiki demanded, slightly frustrated. “Just because you’re not a cosplayer?”

My eyes darkened. Without another word, I strode away from him.

“Hey! I’m not done yet!”

He ran up to me, but my steps never faltered. I’d stopped pushing him away, since my efforts proved to be futile.

His lips tightened. He followed me in silence, like I’m the only person left in the world.

* * *

“Hall Sixteen, one floor above.” I said.

“Okay.” He said as he turned to the direction of the escalator.

We froze at the sound of voices. I checked my watch.

“There shouldn’t be anyone up at 2a.m.” I whispered to Hibiki, who was leaning against the wall cautiously.

“Well, there’s us.” He said without looking at me.

We were behind the wall next to the escalator. Hibiki had pulled me to cover as soon as we realized there were people in the third floor hallways.

We tried to listen in on the conversation. There were occasional crescendos, but the voices died down as soon as they were raised.

More and more voices joined in.

After a few minutes of eavesdropping, I tugged on Hibiki’s sleeve.

“They sound like they’re alright. Let’s go meet them.”

“What? Rae, you can’t be sure. They might be assassins or something.”

I walked out from behind the wall. I heard Hibiki heave a helpless sigh behind me, but my steps only got wider and wider.

There were more people there than I had presumed. All heads turned to me at the sound of my stilettos.

All twenty of them were cosplayers. Their cosplay was so well-done that I had to suppress the urge to ask for a picture.

“Well. Look what we have here,” said a Roy Mustang cosplayer with his arms folded. Clad in his blue military outfit, he fitted the look of the _Fullmetal Alchemist_ character.

“Hello.” I waved at them blankly, a squeal of excitement hitched in my throat at the sight of brilliant cosplay. _Appear apathetic_ , I told myself.

Hibiki came up next to me and shot me an angry stare.

“Who would’ve thought there were others still awake?” said a Gon Freecs cosplayer.

“Of course there are, you idiot! There must be at least five thousand people in this building. We can’t be the only ones who’re still awake!” exclaimed a Killua Zoldyck.

With one swift move, Hibiki pulled me behind him and stood on guard. We stared at the person unsheathing her sword.

Mikasa Ackerman from the popular series _Shingeki no Kyojin_. Her eyes were deadly as she pointed the blade at us.

“You’ve been eavesdropping for quite some time, haven’t you?”

The others turned from her to us.

“State your motive. Are you here to look for a fight?”

The air was tense as Hibiki spoke. “Absolutely not. We only eavesdropped because we thought you were dangerous. We’ve met too many of those who were out to test their strength.”

Seeing as they were unconvinced, Hibiki eyed me. “Rae here and I were in a huge battle earlier in Hall Nine. Thankfully things were settled, but we’ve seen the battle and bloodshed with our own eyes. We’re not interested in being idiots.”

The crowd exchanged glances. A cosplayer I didn’t recognize put her hand on Mikasa’s and lowered her sword.

“Always a pleasure to meet accomplices,” said a gorgeous Erza Scarlet. She approached us and extended a hand. Hibiki shook it thoughtfully.

Erza was in her Robe of Yuan armour, complete with her weapon and all. On top of it, she had the same air of benevolence as the actual Fairy Tail character. “We were just discussing about forming an alliance.”

“Alliance?”

She nodded. “Obviously we can’t just go on waiting for something to happen. We’ve gotta make it happen.”

“So we’re going to put the pieces together and hopefully we can find a way out.” said Roy Mustang.

“Getting out of here isn’t the only reason to form the alliance.” A man with golden blond hair stepped out from behind the crowd. I couldn’t take my eyes off the V-shaped flame on his forehead.

He looked at us with his sharp orange orbs. Dressed in a black suit complete with signature battle gloves, he resembled the _Katekyo Hitman Reborn!_ character so much that I couldn’t resist shouting “Giotto!” while pointing rudely at him.

“Yes, that is indeed the character I’m cosplaying as,” he said calmly, mirroring the Vongola Primo’s expression.

“Put your hand down, Rae.” Hibiki whispered. Then to Giotto, he asked. “What other reason are you speaking of, err…Giotto?”

“It’s James, actually.”

“But we all just call him Boss!” A spunky blue-haired girl in a jumpsuit of the same hue exclaimed. “It’s so annoying when cosplayers have different names as the character.”

“Well of course they have their own names, this is real life!” shouted Killua.

“Yeah but people can’t remember it! Are you Giotto or are you James? You look like Giotto but you’re actually James!”

“Oh give it a rest, Ene. Your hyperactivity at 2am is giving me a headache,” groaned a scruffy-looking man as he spun the gun in his hand around.

“No, you give it a rest, Phil!” Ene stuck her tongue out at him childishly. “And correction, Killua: this _used to be_ real life. Not anymore.”

There was a heavy silence in the air after she spoke. Killua and Gon exchanged glances. Phil sighed and slipped the gun into his pocket.

Ene, still looking as if she didn’t know the meaning of her words, asked. “What’s wrong? Was it something I said? Why’s everyone so quiet?” She paused. “But it’s true, isn’t it? Nothing that happens here will matter to real life. If you die, just get someone to revive you. If you’re weak, just travel with someone stronger than you.”

No, I take back my thoughts. Perhaps Ene was smarter than she looked. Her eyes gave off an intellectual spark that I didn’t notice before.

“So to put it bluntly: we call James ‘Boss’ because it’s easier.” Roy folded his arms. “He’s the leader of our alliance.”

James eyed Roy and turned his attention to us. “You’re most welcome to join us. We’re going to need as much manpower as we can get to attain victory.”

“Victory? As in breaking out?” I asked.

Erza shook her head as Ene apparently was laughing at my stupidity or something like that.

“There’s another group forming in the shadows,” said Erza, her voice hushed as if there were spies in the walls.

“We heard that they were planning to kill all those who were incapable of fighting and dominate the rest of the convention.”

“It’s as if they’re planning for us to be here forever.” Mikasa muttered.

The Boss nodded. “Of course, word spreads fast here among anime fans. We haven’t confirmed their motive or even their very existence, but it’s better to act fast.”

Voices from the direction of the ticket counters attracted our attention. All of a sudden, a mass of cosplayers started to emerge from behind the counter, leaping onto the hallway and running towards us.

I backed away, intimidated by their sudden force.

They were all smiling; smiling and waving and shouting names.

“Oh, that was faster than I thought,” said Roy Mustang. Come to think of it, I still didn’t know their actual names.

“Boss!” shouted a cosplayer in a red fluffy dress. I could swear he ran like a dude.

“He’s a crossplayer.” I muttered to Hibiki, who tried to hush me for being rude.

Soon, everyone assembled around Boss.

“What did you find?”

“It was a lot easier to snoop around when everyone’s asleep,” answered a Sphintus Carmen, a character from _Magi_. “We checked everyone’s bags, but nothing.”

“We went back to the Main Hall,” reported a beautiful lady in a yellow Egyptian dress. “Didn’t find anything suspicious, ‘cept for the blood stains.”

“I see.”

The woman turned to us. “Seems like you’ve picked up a few more. Charisma comes to you with such ease, James.”

“I didn’t do anything though.” Boss said, to which the woman brushed off with talk of humility.

“Anyway, you’re our new recruits?” asked the fluffily dressed crossplayer, leaning in to scrutinize us.

“Keh!” A silver-haired cosplayer in full red scoffed. Unmistakably an Inuyasha cosplayer, he even had the character’s sword and amber eyes. “I can get the Lavi, since he’s useful, but what are you gonna do with the girl? She’s a non-cosplayer!”

“Keeping her around is too dangerous, Boss,” another cosplayer dressed in metallic battle gear said. “She’ll just get in the way.”

“Alex!”

“What? We’re not here to be nice to each other. We’re here to get safe and get the hell out. Even if we don’t bring the girl along, she’ll still be grateful when we help her keep her life.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yeah, you heard me.” He cocked his eyebrow. “So we’ll keep the Lavi and you can just run along now.” He shooed me with his hand cockily.

“Alex, stop.” Boss’s voice wasn’t loud or demanding, but it sure did shut him up.

“Tell me when you’ve saved the day.” I said to Alex. “I’ll be sure to bring the reporters.”

I turned and muttered a goodbye to Hibiki before leaving.

“Uh, just to be clear,” I heard Hibiki’s say. “I’m sticking around with Rae here so if you’ll excuse us–”

“See what you did, Alex?” a woman screamed.

I looked over my shoulder to see a mass of the group knuckling him on the head. There were shouts and screams and it surely wasn’t what I would ever imagine myself watching awake at 2.15 in the morning.

“We need as many people as we can get!”

“Who cares if she’s a non-cosplayer? The important thing is that she travels with that Lavi and Lavi is powerful!”

"At least we can keep Lavi even if she's completely useless!"

“Can’t you at least phrase your sentences better?”

Ah, what a load of crap. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear at 2.15 in the morning either.

“Urgh, fine!” shouted Alex as he tried to untangle himself from the fists aimed at him. He stared at me and said. “If you can prove yourself useful, then we’ll gladly keep you.”

“I don’t need to prove anything to you,” I cocked my head to the side challengingly. “And really? _Keep_ me?”

All of us whipped our heads to the ceiling as an explosion roared above us.

“We better check it out,” said Boss.

“Wait.” Phil’s voice cut through the noise above. All eyes were on him. He took a deep breath and sighed. “I know this is unfair for you–uh, Rae, was it?” I nodded. “But we really need to know the extent of your abilities for us to send you out for tasks. Any sort of addition to our alliance is taken positively.” At this, he sent a glare towards Alex. “But for non-cosplayers like us without certain abilities, Boss will ask you to undergo a test.”

Funny how that last line came from someone other than the Boss himself, I thought.

“We’re not asking you to prove anything to us, we just need you to show us what you’re capable of,” said a Kagamine Rin from the crowd. “Would you do that?”

“And frankly you get more perks travelling with a reliable troupe like ours,” someone pointed out.

“If Hibiki’s all you want then take him.” I rolled my eyes. Another explosion went off.

“I’m not leaving Rae, by the way.” Hibiki glanced at me with a crooked grin.

“What are you, some squabbling lovebirds? Or main characters out of a _shoujo_ manga?”

“Hold off your _tsundere_ -ness for later, kid. We’ve got some serious business right now.” A Night Nura Rikuo stepped forward, clad in his blue hakama and amazingly gelled black-white hair. “Boss is too nice to say this but we need you to go up there and deal with whatever’s causing those explosions.”

“Nura.” For once, I heard a warning tone from Boss.

“But we need to know, Boss. That’s what we did for Phil too.”

“Wait, you don’t even know what’s up there!” exclaimed Hibiki. “How could you just send Rae up alone?”

At that point I was already ticked off too much to be grateful towards Hibiki.

“You’ll regret ever underestimating me, Alex.” I said haughtily. “Just so you know, even if I defeat whatever’s up there, I won’t be travelling around for my life with people like you.”

“Rae,” I came into contact with Hibiki’s concerned eyes.

“I’ll be fine. Thank you.” I flashed a smile at him.

Before heading for the escalator, I looked over my shoulder. “And just so you know, I’ve never once thought of myself as a non-cosplayer.”


	6. Stiletto no Shoujo

“What did she mean when she said that?” Gon whispered to Killua, just loud enough for my ears.

Killua shrugged with his eyes on me. The whole alliance had shifted to the fourth floor, all huddled to the side of Hall Twenty to watch the show.

When we first got up there, the whole place was filled with thick smoke and rubble. The main door of the hall was burst open, together with part of the wall. There weren’t many people in the hall, but since most of them were non-cosplayers, I could really feel the weight on my shoulders.

“Any medics here?” I asked the members of the alliance. 

“Wendy.” A chibi blue-haired girl ran out as soon as she was summoned by Boss. (But didn’t before that, even when she saw all the injured, I realized.)

“We need more medics.” I mumbled to myself as I scanned the room for any. Some other attendees from other halls had ran over upon hearing the noise.

“Medics, anyone?” Hibiki shouted to them. A few girls exchanged glances and ran out to help.

I sighed in relief as more bystanders came out to help.

“Now’s not the time to worry about other people!” Erza called behind me. 

The one responsible for the bombing, a bald, muscular cyborg with a bazooka for a left hand and a flashlight-laser for a right eye was intimidating just by looks alone. 

“Give me what I want before I destroy all of you!” He roared.

I could feel my legs trembling, but I tried to keep my composure. What I’d declared so courageously to the alliance will not be just all-talk. I needed to defeat this guy.

My right hand reached for my left elbow. 

I had already noticed it when the situation went berserk yesterday, but I couldn't believe it was real. And I refused to resort to using it unless the circumstances called for it.

I took a deep breath and calmed myself.

When all the injured lying among the sea of rubble were cleared, I stepped out, the tap of my footfalls reverberating in my ear.

“Give me what I want!” The cyborg repeated.

“What do you want?” I approached him cautiously.

His eyes fell on me. My legs froze immediately.

“What do I want? What do I want? WHAT DO I WANT!???” He screamed.

“Yes, what you want.” I repeated, slightly annoyed.

“How would you know what I want!?” He growled.

“What? I don’t! That’s  why I’m asking you!” I threw my hands up in the air in my frustration. I thought my opponent would at least be sane. At least.

“Shut up! Shut up!” The cyborg pointed his bazooka hand at me and started to load it. I stared at the accumulating mass of light from its tip in horror.

“Stop!” Hibiki shouted, wanting to rush out to my aid, but was held back by Roy Mustang. “Get your hands off of me! She needs me!”

The cyborg fired his weapon, to which I ducked just on time. I gaped at the debris formed at the wall where the laser hit it. It was completely pulverized, and that could’ve been me. 

I turned in time to see him loading his bazooka again. I had no time to sit around in a daze.

Pushing myself up to my feet, I ran towards the wall then along it. And there hadn’t been a moment when I felt my stiletto heels as hard as I did then.

“Are you guys just going to stand here and watch!??” Hibiki screamed, still thrashing under Roy’s grip. “Rae, run!”

All of the cyborg’s shots barely missed me, and since running in stiletto heels wasn’t going to get me anywhere faster, I knew I couldn’t keep it up much longer .

I only had one chance at this. I reached into my sleeve and felt for the thin slice of metal strapped to my elbow. 

My heart was pounding so loudly that it was hard to focus. It was even harder with Hibiki shouting at the side. 

Still running, I shot him a look.  _I’m okay, _ I thought.  _I got this_.

To my surprise, he calmed down and watched me in silence, as if he understood me. 

I turned back to the cyborg and prepared myself. He was reloading his weapon again. If my aim decided to deceive me today, I would receive a head-on blow from the bazooka, and I really didn’t want to find out how it feels. Tightening my grip on the cold metal, I flung the blade from my sleeve towards the loaded bazooka. The weapon flew straight into its mouth, causing the cyborg’s metalloid arm to rattle at overload.

“What did you do…?” The cyborg looked too surprised to speak.

My footfalls came to a stop, my breathing still heavy from the tension and fear that I might’ve missed. 

Smoke was emanating from the mouth of the bazooka. The cyborg gritted his teeth and yelled a string of incoherent words to me in fury.

I stared at him–his laser eye, to be exact–in horror.

“Why? Why did you have to do this to me?” The cyborg cried as he fell to his knees. He dropped his bazooka hand with a loud  _thud _ on the ground, and judging from its appearance, it looks as if I’ve fried his machine. 

Watching his reduced state really made the guilt eat into me. “Sorry,” I said, biting my lip. “I did what I had to.” Which was a big lie, really, since I challenged him partly because I was challenged by the alliance and not because I was acting on behalf of the injured. To tell him that I had to defeat him with my  _kami_ -knows-where-they-came-from stiletto blades was quite an insult.

I turned to the alliance, most who were watching me wide-eyed. There were even a few who were clapping.

“Were you aware of her weapon?” Nura Rikuo asked Hibiki, who shook his head robotically.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Boss watch me, unsurprised, his eyes almost as if he already knew what I had under my sleeve. Literally.

Then again, perhaps nothing ever shocked Boss. His character as Vongola Primo was too reserved and calm to display any sort of huge reaction to surprises anyway.

“You little wench!” shouted the cyborg with streaks of tears lining his cheeks. “Why!? He did nothing to deserve this! ”

It was one of those ominous moments when you can feel it in your gut: _run_.

My reaction proved to be two seconds too late as the cyborg reached out and grabbed my leg.

I screamed as he flung me against the wall. My back hit it hard, but not as hard as my head. I coughed and spat out some sharp-tasting liquid, but since it wasn’t in the alarming colour of crimson, I didn’t suppose it was close to a fatal blow.

I leaned against the wall trying to find proper footing with my heels when he came at me with such an astonishing speed that going against his bazooka almost seemed like handling a toy. 

“Rae, don’t fight him!” Hibiki yelled as he ran towards me. “Just run!”

Noticing his presence, the cyborg grabbed me by the head and pushed me against the wall. I cried out in pain.

“Stop!” Hibiki growled. I could get a hazy view of him pulling out a miniature black hammer, the fighting weapon of Lavi in the actual manga. I would’ve loved to see it in action, though I would’ve preferred to be in better circumstances.

“Get...outta here…!” The cyborg muttered,  almost to himself. I clutched his wrist in a desperate attempt to free myself when that same ominous feeling hit me like a wave. 

“Your eye…” 

“He was my best friend.” The cyborg’s voice was trembling as his grip on me loosened. I fell weakly on my heels. “This was our first convention. We said we were gonna come again the next year, and the year after that, and the year after that…!”

I listened intently. The cyborg had never seemed so human.

My eyes grew wide as Hibiki lunged at the cyborg's  back with his hammer. “Watch out!” I pushed him away from Hibiki’s  _Ōzuchi Kozuchi _attack. The mini hammer had become a giant one – a significant battle weapon used by Lavi in  _D. Gray-Man _ . 

“You could’ve crushed him!” I shouted.

“Excuse me? Where’s my thank you?” Hibiki asked, appalled.

“Wait, cease fire for a minute.” I shot him a glance.

“What are you doing?” Seeing how I was ignoring him, he came closer to us with the hammer still in giant mode.

The alliance watched us without moving an inch. How could a proper alliance of powerful cosplayers intent on helping the weak be so…selfish?

Nura and Erza were whispering to Boss, but the golden-haired leader held up a hand to silence them. His eyes never left me, as if he was still waiting for something to happen.

“What happened to your friend?” I asked the cyborg, fear creeping in at every possible channel. My heartbeat was probably running a hundred times faster in just this one day compared to a hundred days of school.

“You guys!” He screamed, his eyes mirroring that of the brunette we encountered in Hall Nine. “You guys killed him! Right in front of everybody…you killed him you killed him YOU KILLED HIM!!”

The cyborg was on his knees, crying and wailing. I trembled, steadied only by Hibiki’s grip on my shoulder.

“Get it together.” He said, but I was far from following his instructions.

“Your friend…” I found myself murmuring. 

“He was the first…the first guy who got killed in the convention. He was just standing right next to me. Watching the alchemist-girl transmute confetti…watching the people around us use their powers…then….THEN…”

“Why him?” asked Hibiki, still as calm as ever. “Did anyone ever h old any grudges against him?”

“No…” He looked at us, then turned away. “I don’t know…”

I’ve been staring at it for quite a while now. The slow but stable blinking of  the  red light in his laser-eye. As he went on with his tale, I couldn’t help but feel the blinking accelerate. 

Then it hit me.

“You’re next.” I gasped. 

“What?”

Hibiki’s eyes widened in realization almost immediately.

Without another thought, I pinned the cyborg down onto his back, slid out another stiletto blade (this time from my right sleeve)  and sliced the blade through his laser-eye while making sure it doesn’t cut into his skin.

“What are you–” He gaped at the blinking red light on the metal previously attached to him. The beeping grew louder and louder.

I checked the laser and the stub of metal left at his right eye socket. After confirming that the blinking and the beeping was only at the cut-out metal I was holding, I got up and ran towards the exit. 

My hands were shaking as I fumbled with the bomb and blade in my hands. I kept running, thinking that I wouldn’t make it in time. 

It didn’t weigh much, but that didn’t mean it wouldn’t blow the whole building up. Still with my legs pushing its usually sedentary muscles, I pulled out the ribbon sash I had as a makeshift tie around my neck and attempted to secure the stiletto to the bomb.

The beeping was so loud that I couldn’t hear myself think.

_ Almost to the door_, I told myself. Tying a knot around two fatal instruments was no easy task, especially when trying to control my jumpy fingers.

My legs caught up speed as the beeping grew so incessant that I thought it was gonna blow us up any second.

I fastened the knot and threw the contraption with all my eighteen-year-old might towards the window.

The pressure on the tip of the stiletto blade was enough to break the glass, just as I’d hoped.

“Get down, Rae!” Out of nowhere, a man pounced on me, pushing me to land on my side. The explosion rang in my ear, the force it unleashed sending a strong gale into the hall. Still in Hibiki 's arms, I gasped as smoke wafted into the hall from outside.

“You okay?”

I nodded as we got up. I put a hand on my chest, trying in futility to calm my heartbeat.

Hibiki watched me. “Come on,” he slung my hand around his shoulder and pulled me up. “Not hurt are you?”

I shook my head as I leaned helplessly into his orange scarf.

The members of the alliance rushed out to the hallway to inspect the damage. Hibiki was about to bring me out to do the same when I lost control over my limbs.

“Whoa, Rae,” Hibiki held on to my waist to support my jellyfish-like state. “Can you stand?”

“I’m…real tired…” My eyelids were  probably the weight of the cyborg’s bazooka by then. I squeezed my eyes real tight and blinked. 

“Then rest,” said Hibiki. “I’ll take care of things here.”

“No…I can still go on…” I stifled a yawn.

“No you can’t. You must’ve been up for at least twenty hours straight. Plus you’ve got all those battles and–”

His words slipped away from my comprehension as I lost my battle to stay awake. 

* * *

I woke up to the blend of cologne and hairspray and the soft comfort of a scarf. My eyes fluttered open as the backache from a bad sleeping position kicked in. I winced, lifting my head to find my face two inches away from a sleeping Hibiki’s .

Leaping back in surprise, I froze for a few moments before confirming that I didn’t wake him up. 

Now wide awake and completely free from the drowsiness, I took a good look at him. There were a couple of bandages on his cheeks that wasn’t there the night before. When was he injured? 

“Oh, you’re up.” I jumped at the voice of a woman. I turned to see Erza approach me from the entrance. We were sleep-sitting at the corner of the hall near the entrance, and  that was when I took a better look at the interior of the convention centre – complete with debris and rubble from a bombed- open door, trashed game booths and attendees of  Anifiesta lining the wall opposite ours who resembled a group of hobos.

“How’re you feeling?” Erza asked, her scarlet hair billowing from the wind outside. 

I paused. We’re indoors. There shouldn’t be any wind.

Vaguely recalling the incidents from the night before, I remembered throwing a blade and a bomb out of the window. I felt for my ribbon at my neck.

Not there.

So it wasn’t a dream after all.

“Did I break the glass outside?” I croaked, stretching to cure the ever-aching backpain .

“Uh, yeah you did,” said Erza in a matter-of-fact tone. “You don’t remember?”

“Well, it’s hard to distinguish what’s real  and what’s not after dozing off.” I rubbed my temples. It was then I noticed the bandages on my finger.

“Oh, those,” the scarlet-haired cosplayer sat down before me as she put her Robe of Yuen weapon, the  _bisentō_  down next to her. “Your fingers were bleeding last night after you threw the bomb out.”

“I must’ve cut myself when I was tying the blade to the bomb.” I examined my hand. “But if I didn’t, the bomb might not have had enough force to break the glass. Then the explosion would’ve happened indoors. This small injury is just a small price to pay for the greater good.”

Erza closed her eyes. “That’s…very keen perception you have there. Especially at such a crucial moment.”

“Thank you.” From the corner of my eye, I saw a few other cosplayers I recognized as members of the alliance approach us. “Thank you for helping me with my hand too,” and under my breath, I added. “Though you guys didn’t do anything else but watch me die.”

Her eyebrow twitched. “We did that under Boss’s orders. Not doing anything, that is.” 

I dropped my gaze. Primo or Boss or James or Giotto didn’t seem taken aback at all when he saw me with my stiletto blades, nor when I sliced out the bomb from the cyborg’s eye. Did he know this would happen all along?  

I never really understood Giotto as a character much in  _Katekyo_. He appeared mostly in flashbacks, so even though there were uncountable instances when the other characters worshipped him, I didn’t know the actual extent of his powers. He might’ve have inhuman perception, and now Boss has inherited that trait of Giotto’s.

“But I didn’t help you with the bandages.” Erza added, nodding to the approaching members. 

“You didn’t? Then who did?”

She nodded to the figure beside me. I turned to Hibiki, who was still fast asleep. 

“He was the one who  shielded you from the explosion too, in case if you can’t remember. He got those scars on his face when he did.”

My gaze fell. Hibiki’s motives for being nice to me were beyond my comprehension.

“It must be nice to have a friend tag along to anime conventions like this,” said the beautiful, exotic-looking lady in the Egytian yellow dress coming to sit next to us. “He can even protect you when stuff like this happens." 

“Hmm?” I tilted my head, questioning. “What do you mean?”

“Didn’t you already know Hibiki before this?”

I shook my head, and I was surprised by the fact they looked shocked.

“You guys seemed pretty close though,” said the pretty lady. “So you only met him here at Anifiesta ?”

“Yeah.” I stole a glance at him before whispering. “I wanna know why he’s so nice too.”

The two women giggled. “You should take advantage of it! It’s not every day a random guy who–” They looked at him. “–doesn’t look that bad offers to do everything at your bidding.”

“I wouldn’t really say ‘everything at my bidding’, but…” I stopped myself.  _But it’s suspicious_.

“Annalisa, Er,”  Night Nura strode towards us. He stared at me with his unrelenting gaze. I stared back in spite, since he wasn’t exactly very nice the night before when he sent me to battle for my dear life.

“What’s up?” The two women got up to their feet. I did the same, but stumbled slightly on my heels. I caught sight of Nura rolling his eyes at my inelegance, and that made me dislike him even more.  

“James wants to see the douchebag.”

“Tell him there’s none here.” I folded my arms. “Go search somewhere else.”

He clicked his tongue and made a motion to unsheathe his sword.

“Now, now, Night,” Annalisa the beauty stopped him. “We need Rae alive here.”

“Go ahead, kid.” Erza gestured with her chin towards the piled of debris leading to the hallway. “Night may be annoying, but Boss thinks highly of you, so it won’t be that bad.”

“…okay.” I looked at Hibiki, whose scarf was hanging loosely on his neck. I knelt down and wrapped it better. 

Erza and Annalisa were giggling behind me. I didn’t want to ask why.

“Where is he?” 

“Right outside. You’ll find him standing next to the paved floor of glass – the mess you made last night.”

Erza knocked Night with the blunt side of her _bisentō_ , hard.

I took another glance at Hibiki before making my way out to meet the mastermind behind my second near-death experience .


	7. Ashitaka

 

Boss was alone when I saw him. Even with his back facing me, it seemed like he knew the person approaching him was me. 

“It seems like the barrier is only permeable to forces of nature.” He said, still facing the window.

“Excuse me?”

“The wind can pass, so can sunlight…” He lifted his head, and so did I. I stared at the bird outside slamming itself right into the barrier. “…but not anything living.”

“So I see.” I said. “You wanted to see me for this?”

Boss turned to me, and I saw the ghost of a smile flash across his face. “You’ve had a long day yesterday. Are you sure you don’t want to rest longer?”

“Err…I’m good.” I stuttered, suddenly feeling strange under his kind concern. “But…I have some questions for you.”

“I’m sure you do. Go ahead.”

“Have you always known I had weapons up my sleeve? Or that the cyborg’s left eye was an explosive?”

“Hmm…I wonder about that.” He looked at me with what I imagined would be eyes of a wise old man.

“I can think of a hundred better ways you could answer me with,” I muttered at his unhelpfulness. 

Boss chuckled. Not the type of chuckle that ordinary people like us have, but the crossover of amusement and mild laughter that’s on a whole different level of sophistication. In other words, Boss simply wasn’t like the rest of us.

“What?”

“You are an interesting OC.”

“So you did know,” I said. “That Han Rae-yeon is an original character I created.”

“Of course. Your battle style and weapons are based on the concept from which you created you r character. That’s why someone who didn’t have any sort of weapons nor the stamina to battle at the start of Anifiesta like yourself would suddenly find stiletto blades in your sleeves and be able to endure the pain of a fatal wound.” 

I paused. “How did you know that?”

“I heard from Hibiki. He didn’t sleep until he finished patching up your cuts, so we had a long talk.”

“Oh…”

Boss stared at me in silence as my mind dwelled on matters concerning said cosplayer .

“You don’t have to be bothered by it. He takes care of you on his own free will. Instead of feeling apprehensive and bad about it, you should be grateful.”

“I know.”

Boss exhaled softly and headed towards the left side of the hallway. “Follow me.”

“Where to?” I asked, but he’d already paced too far ahead to hear me.

* * *

I peeped into the room consciously before entering it after Boss. It was a small, dimly-lit meeting room at the far end of the hallway. There was a long table, at which Phil, Gon, Killua and a few other members of the alliance were seated.

I stopped when I saw the cyborg sitting at one end of the table. From the looks of it, the alliance had probably been interrogating him. The cyborg’s head was drooped, low and lifeless.

“Any updates?” Boss pulled out the chair next to the cyborg, motioning me to sit. I did as requested, while he went over to the seat a few chairs away from mine.

“Not really, not since an hour ago,” answered Phil. “He hasn’t been talking.”

“Rae-san,” Gon leaned over from the opposite of the table. “How’re you feeling?”

“I’m better, thank you.” I nodded. Gon’s warm smile was really true to his earnest character.

I turned to the cyborg. “What’s your name?”

He didn’t move an inch. I dropped my head in an attempt to meet his gaze. “Hello? Mr. Cyborg?” 

Gon laughed as Killua mumbled. “Are you treating him like a five-year-old kid?”

I sighed after receiving nothing close to a response from him. 

“Don’t waste your time.” Phil glanced at me. “He’s been like that since forever.”

“’Forever as in an hour and twenty minutes,” said Roy Mustang as he checked his watch. I leapt in surprise, not realizing that he’d been standing behind me all this while. 

“When did you get here!?”

“At 3 am.” He raised an eyebrow at me. “When you were knocked out.”

I pursed my lips at his remark. There sure were quite a number of jerks in the alliance.

“Ran….”

All heads turned to the cyborg.

“What did you say?” I leaned closer to him. He didn’t raise his head.

“Randolph…my friend…” He mumbled in a voice so soft it was almost inaudible. 

“Rae!” Phil called to me in a hushed tone. “Try to get him to talk!”

My gaze lingered on the cyborg’s shrivelled state before turning to the alliance. “I think I’m gonna need you guys to leave. ”

"Alright." Boss said almost immediately.

“What? But what if something happens or if he attacks you again? You can't even protect yourself–” Roy started. Boss shot Roy a glare so intense that I didn’t know his stoic face could make. 

“We’ll be right outside if you need us.” Boss stood up as the other members of the alliance scurried out of the room. “Gon and Killua, you two stay here. Is that fine?” He asked me. 

I nodded. The two  _Hunter x Hunter _ characters have been quite likable since I met them, so I supposed it was to my preference that they stayed.

Boss remained in the room for a moment, as if doing the sort of thinking that those of us with a less-than-average intellect wouldn’t understand. He then left the room, and as soon as he did, the cyborg began to talk. 

* * *

“But why Randolph?” Killua was sipping water from the plastic cup he found at the side of the meeting room while Gon was nodding intently at the cyborg. Killua’s laid-back behaviour blended with Gon’s optimism, creating an easy atmosphere for the cyborg to pour his heart out.

“Well…that’s…” The cyborg avoided eye contact. For a long while, we stared at him in silence.

“We swear secrecy,” I said finally , glancing at the two c osplayers.

The cyborg  hesitated. He took a deep breath, his lips parted to form words, when –

“What’s wrong?” I asked the two who were getting up all of a sudden.

“We’re leaving,” Gon said, a serious expression masking his usual cheerfulness.

“What? Why?”

“Because we can’t swear secrecy.” Killua swallowed the last sip of water before slamming the cup down onto the brown mahogany table. “You’re a free soul, Rae, but we’ve pledged loyalty to Boss. We have to tell him everything we know.” His eyes darted over to the cyborg. “Whether we like it or not.”

“It’s better this way, Rae-san.” Gon gave me a slight grin. “If there was anything behind Andou-san’s story that could put him in danger, we’d rather not hear it.”

I crossed my fingers together and rested my hands on the table. “I understand. How old are you two again? Surely not fourteen like the actual Gon and Killua?”

“ We're sixteen, actually,” said Killua. “But our height doesn’t make up to our maturity.”

I smiled. “I appreciate your consideration towards…” I turned to the cyborg, who now somehow looked far from intimidating. “…Andou-san.”

“We’ll try to convince the others to leave the area. Who knows if someone out there has eavesdropping techniques. ”

“Well then, we’ll see you around, Rae-san.”

I nodded and waved goodbye.

As the door shut behind them, I could feel the air tighten. It was just me and Andou-san.

“So, let’s recap.”

He nodded.

“You and Randolph have been best friends since high school, which is like, eight years ago.”

“Seven, but close enough.”

“And this is your first time attending Anifiesta together.”

He nodded. 

“And while you were cosplaying as a cyborg, he was a non-cosplayer .”

“He said he didn’t want to dress funny.”

“Ah…so then,” unconsciously, my voice became quiet. “Why was he targeted? And why are you next? If what happened to him yesterday was an accident due to the chaos of a  hundred cosplayers executing their powers, why was there a bomb in your eye that even you didn't know about? And you said something about ‘getting what you want’ yesterday when I first saw you. What do you mean?”

I hadn’t realized it at that moment, but I sure wasn’t ready for his answers when I bombarded him with my questions.

* * *

“Rae!”  Hibiki  ran frantically towards me. I stood frozen in the middle of the hallway. “I heard from the others that you went to see the cyborg? Is he still in the meeting room?”

"He left."

"Left? To where? I thought we were supposed to keep him in custody."

“… Hibiki.” 

“Yeah?”

“Let’s…get out of here. Let’s get out of this hell and pretend nothing ever happened.”

He went silent. “Rae…are you okay?”

I didn’t reply.  I didn’t even look at him. 

“Look me in the eye and tell me you’re okay.” He shook my shoulders hard. 

“I’m okay.”

“Look me in the eye and say it like you mean it!”

“I can’t lie, Hibiki.” I said, noticing how we were the only ones left in the hallway. “Boss sent you here to dig some info?”

“Yeah, well, Night  Rikuo did, actually. He’s apparently second-in-command for the alliance but anyway–what happened in the meeting room? What did he tell you?”

“Do you want to join the alliance, Hibiki?”

“Hmm? Not really, but if you’re already part of it, I don’t see why–”

“I’m not in the alliance.” I answered quickly, then exhaled slowly to calm my nerves. “Let’s…let’s just go, okay?”

He was stunned for a moment, then his shoulders relaxed as he patted me on the head. “Yeah, let’s go.”

Away from the alliance… 

Away from Andou-san…

And away from the reality that killed Randolph.

* * *

Since all the members of the alliance were discussing some important matters in Hall Twenty (according to Hibiki), we had no trouble avoiding them as we ran away. Hibiki had stopped pressing on with the questions, but occasionally he would stare at me intently, looking as if he’s deep in thought, then shake it away and act like it was nothing.

“They’ll come find us, though,” Hibiki said as we rested in a hall (I got tired of checking its number) dominated by artists’ booths. Doujin booths were a must-visit for a typical anime convention, and for an event like Anifiesta, the booths stretched out to at least two halls. There must  have been at least one hundred artists around.

“Why should they?” I gulped down the  can of coke in my hand, the one we bought earlier from a vending machine. “There are plenty of other Original Characters around to recruit. I’m sure there are other Lavis too.”

“It’s not me they want.” He paused. “Well, not anymore.”

I watched the group of girls shooting weird glances towards our direction. _Probably artists_ , I thought. _Probably looking at_ _Hibik i. _

“The alliance wants you.” Hibiki said, as if oblivious to the fact that he was charming those ladies without lifting a finger.

“Me? Why?” I asked half-heartedly as I pretended not to see those girls approach us.

“Because James likes you.”

I finally turned to him. “Don’t make it sound otherwise .”

“It’s true. James wants you.” He smirked. 

“You just made it sound worse.” I gave him a playful push, and by then the girls were already too close for us to not notice them.

“ Erm…” They sent a rep to talk. The girl, a  _megane-chan_ , was pinching the edge of her shirt bashfully. Somehow, some part of my mind told me that I disliked them. 

“Can I help you?” Hibiki showed them a wide welcoming grin. I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at how the girls were trying to muffle their squeals.

“Can we have a picture with you?”

“Oh, sure.” He answered almost immediately.

One of the girls wearing a short Japanese schoolgirl skirt tossed me her camera. “Could you help us take it?” She was trying to sound polite, but I just couldn’t whip out a smile to act cheerful.

“Sure…” 

They huddled around him.

I clicked on the shutter. After checking the picture, they asked for a second one because the first picture  ‘ didn’t capture their good sides ’ . The nerve.

_'Han Rae- yeon' _  was supposed to be like that. Fangirly and annoying. She couldn’t fight anyone good-looking; their appearance either leaves her paralyzed or resisting the urge to ask for a picture, just like these girls. 

Well, at least Han Rae-yeon can fight and fling stiletto blades with perfect aim, even if she was supposed to be cluelessly impulsive .

These girls can win manga competitions with flawless artwork though. I clicked my tongue, recalling a bad experience I had with an artist.

I was supposed to stay in character, but somehow Han Rae-yeon’s personality was slipping away from me as time passed . 

They thanked Hibiki and proceeded to ask for his name and number. 

I sighed and gave the camera back to one of the girls, who just took it without another word, since she was too busy pleading Hibiki to show them his hammer weapon. I didn’t know what I’d expected from them.

“I’ll be checking out the place.” I told Hibiki, who probably couldn’t hear me over the extension of his ego.

I walked along the rows of booths, admiring the artwork left on the tables. Most of the artists have abandoned their booths, so I was free to check out everything I wanted to. I took pictures of the personalized  _Kuroko no Basuke_keychains, flipped through the  _Free!   _doujinshis and the array of dolls in fancy clothing arranged on a table. I’ve seen them all on my first few days of Anifeista 2014, but taking a second look at them now really did make a difference.

Another woman, tall with long jet-black hair, was admiring the posters of multiple animes. She wore a leather jacket which revealed her belly (and subsequently her good figure) and a pair of matching black pants and boots. What really caught my attention were the two guns strapped to her waist.

“Hello,” I said.

She looked up from the posters and nodded at me. I supposed that was her way of greeting people.

“What’s your name?” 

“Ashitaka.” 

“Ashitaka?" I lifted an eyebrow. "As in Ashitaka from  _Mononoke Hime_? That Ashitaka?”

“Yes. But I’m a girl.” She said monotonously.

Compared to Primo, her stoicism was on a whole different level.

“So I see…” I muttered, suddenly speechless. “I’m Rae – uh, I mean, Han Rae-yeon.”

She nodded. “Rae.”

I ran out of conversation topics. We stood in silence, with me staring at her and she staring at the posters.

“Where are your friends?” She asked. Finally.

“He’s…a little busy right now.” So apparently Hibiki’s been upgraded from lifesaver to friend.

“Do you always talk to strangers?” She started to walk towards the other booths. I followed.

“Not really.”

“Then why me?”

“Because you were alone. Approaching people who already have comrades is a waste of effort.”

Her footfalls came to a halt. “That’s awfully straightforward.”

“I prefer the term honest.” I walked up next to her and scanned through the variety of cosplay items before us. Most of the more advantageous ones, such as swords and shuriken, have been swept away by desperate individuals right after the incident occurred. Those left were simply cat-ear hats and fake tails. 

From the corner of my eye, I saw Ashitaka’s head shoot up. She was suddenly on guard – her hands were already on her guns. She reminded me of a wild animal sensing the presence of a predator. 

“What’s wrong?”

She pushed me down as she withdrew her gun from the strap. "Shh. They’re coming.”

We froze as footsteps grew louder. I didn’t know what was going on, but somehow I trusted Ashitaka’s battle instincts.

“Rae, can you fight?”

I nodded. I reached for my elbow to find the metal strapped to its position. I sighed in relief. My battle weapons have miraculously replenished somehow .

“Who are they?” I whispered. 

“No one pleasant.” She remained still. “Three of them, one with a sword.”

“How do you–” She slapped her hand over my mouth to silence me.

“ I can handle this myself. But in case anything happens, you should use your fighting skills – whatever they are – to run away.”

I tried to protest, but under her hand my words just sounded like muffled screams.

“When’s your busy friend coming?”

I shrugged. I wondered if he would even bother to come look for me.

“I’m going in. Stay here.”

Han Rae-yeon was supposed to run out defiantly and shout self-absorbed battle cries and yell to a bunch of strangers about not being able to take not doing anything or something like that, but Rae was simply too tired from her previous battle to be righteous and brave.

I peeked from behind the counter of the cosplay items booth. Ashitaka was right – there were three men, and one of them was Prince Hans from  _Frozen_ , the swordsman Ashitaka spoke of.

“What do you want?” The other man was the infamous Loki from Marvel comics, and the other was…a dude (or girl) in a Rillakuma mascot costume. I wondered how Ashitaka could tell there were three of them when Rillakuma’s footsteps were soundless.

She pointed a gun at them. Prince Hans withdrew his sword. 

“What do you want?” She asked with an edge in her voice.

“We have nothing against you. We just want the–”

Ashitaka fired a shot, missing Hans intentionally. 

“Get out of here .”

Loki started to laugh dramatically. His signature villain laugh. “We don’t take orders from anyone, girl.”

“Then you leave me with no choice.” Ashitaka withdrew her other gun and started to fire rapid shots at the trio (even Rillakuma!).

Loki stood unfazed by her attacks in his golden armor while Prince Hans directed the bullets away with his sword. Poor Rillakuma though…

The guy in the bear costume was running away defenseless, not that he would get very far anyway.

“Loki, you can go search the place. I’ll take on the girl,” said Prince Hans. 

Loki was laughing again. I guessed the laugh was part of his cosplay. He then turned away theatrically while flinging his cape. After Loki made his departure, Hans lunged towards Ashitaka while swinging his blade.

The girl leapt back deftly. “Taking me on alone was a big mistake.”

Hans scoffed, the face of a villain in him surfacing. “I doubt it. You overestimate yourself.”

Ashitaka’s grip on her guns tightened for a split-second. She took one step forward and used the force to push herself ahead. Everything that happened after that was too fast for my eyes to keep up. I could only hear a string of incessant gunshots.

It seemed as though Prince Hans couldn’t keep up either. He was retreating while protecting himself with his sword. Ashitaka’s shots were quick, but none of them seemed to hit his vital spots. To miss all her shots at such a swift pace was even more amiable than actually hitting it spot-on.

Ashitaka was strong. Watching her battle made me realize that she was better an ally than enemy. 

Hans landed on his back. The onyx-haired girl pointed her gun at his face without a word.

“Alright, alright. I’ll search elsewhere. Just spare me!” He pleaded. On second thought, maybe Prince Hans was just weak.

I watched as the brunette - a poor excuse of a prince - scurried away after Loki and Rillakuma. 

As I got out of hiding and drew closer to Ashitaka, I could see it in her eyes.

Bloodlust.


	8. The Fall of Rae

 

“Thank you.” I took the bun from Ashitaka. I was starving and already out of energy to scout the place for food. She sat down next to me beside an artist’s booth called  _Yukia_.    


“The way you eat amazes me.” She said. I blinked at her with part of the bun stuffed into my mouth. I swallowed it in one gulp.

“I can’t help it. I'm hungry.”

Ashitaka reached for her gun again at the sound of footsteps.

“Where have you been?” Hibiki shouted as he ran up to us. 

“I’ve been here.” I said, glancing behind him. “Oh, whatever happened to your posse?”

“Finally shook them off.” He panted as he got to us. 

Feeling a peculiar aura of malice, I watched Ashitaka and Hibiki send death glares to each other.

“Rae, who’s this?” Hibiki’s eyebrow twitched. “You’d better not been making strange friends while I was gone.”

“Says the friend who’s too busy for her.” Ashitaka folded her arms. Her voice, albeit threatening, was still monotonous.

“What did you say?” Hibiki gritted his teeth. 

“Calm down,” I rested my hand on his shoulder, muttering. “Besides, Ashitaka wasn’t wrong when she said that.”

“You’re taking her side? She might be dangerous, Rae!”

“Yeah, she is.” I said. 

“If you already know that then–”

“But she’s a good friend to have!” I slung an arm around her neck. Ashitaka with her stoic face showed a peace sign victoriously to Hibiki, which just angered him further.

“I’m all you need, Rae! You don’t need this…this…” 

“Rae doesn’t need you, you pathetic excuse of a Lavi cosplayer.”

“What did you say!?”

“Stop it, Hibiki.” I said. “You know what? Ashitaka was fighting this Prince Hans and she was awesome!” Turning to Ashitaka, I added. “Although…why were you fighting them in the first place? I mean, sure they were villains, but we could’ve just went our separate ways without crossing paths.”

“Sorry.” Her gaze darkened. “I have my reasons.”

I stared at her. “…okay then. C’mon, let’s check out more artist booths. Maybe I can get a free doujinshi if I let the artist take a picture with Hibiki.”

“Hey, don’t use me like that!” exclaimed the orange-haired cosplayer. He kept glancing at Ashitaka with spite. 

I tugged on his arm. “Stop that. We shouldn’t probe if she doesn’t wanna tell us.”

“You can’t trust her, Rae.” 

“Everyone has their secrets.” I felt a chill up my spine as memories of my time with Andou-san in the meeting room surfaced.

“But still–”

“Just so you know, you’re suspiciously very nice to me and you don’t see me staring you down or anything.”

“Well you did, but not anymore.” He pouted. “Besides, I’m different.”

“Yeah, right.” I looked over my shoulder. “Ashitaka, are you coming?”

Stunned, Ashitaka nodded hesitantly as she followed behind us.

And I noticed how Hibiki didn’t say a word about me holding on to his arm.

* * *

“Don't you have enough keychains already ? This is like, your sixteenth one!” Hibiki whined impatiently as I stopped to check on yet another anime keychain.

“This is different! Look–” I shoved the Judar keychain into his face. “This Judar’s too cute!”

“That’s what you said about the Minato one earlier.” He sighed.

“No I didn’t. I said I liked the style the artist drew him with.” I pouted and left some money on the empty booth. 

Ashitaka stood silently beside us as I picked out my merchandises. It was hard to read her face–stoic and passive was all I could think of her. I didn’t mind it a whole lot since she didn’t seem impatient at all.

A group of cosplayers in signature costumes caught my eye.

“Hibiki, look at that!” I pointed.

“What? What? What’s wrong?” He looked around frantically. When he finally realized what it was that I meant, all worry and excitement I had sensed in him vanished.

“Oh.”

“Oh? How could you just say ‘oh’?” I gasped. “It’s the entire Magi cast!!”

Ashitaka was also looking at the conspicuous cosplay group, silently as always.

The group was brimming with life and colour, as almost every Magi character was present. Aladdin, Morgiana, Hakuryuu, Sinbad, Alibaba, Kougyouku, Kouen, Kouei, Scheherazade, Yunan, Titus Alexius…you name it.

“What?” Hibiki’s eyebrow twitched when I started to muffle my laughter. I leaned against him for support, shivering in my attempt to subdue it.

“There…He…” I turned away as some of the characters stared at us. With a softer voice, I said. “…someone actually bothered to cosplay as Ka Koubun…!”

Then I let myself go and burst into laughter.

“Rae…” Hibiki sighed.

Ashitaka eyed me and I could see the corner of her lips curl upward slightly. I lit up at the sight of that.

“Stop it, Rae! You’re too loud.” Hibiki knocked me hard on the head.

“Ouch.” I said between giggles. “Sorry….I couldn’t help it… it’s just…it’s Ka Koubun!"

"Well what's wrong with being Ka Koubun?" 

"Nothing...it's just...I mean...who the hell bothers to dress up as Ka Koubun!? ”

“That's rude, Rae! Well you better stop because they’re watching us now.”

I turned to the group, barely holding in my laughter. All of them were watching us, but their eyes showed no malice, so I figured they weren’t enemies we had to fight. Ever since the incident began, I’ve been building up the habit of judging people like that. With their eyes.

“Hello,  _onee -san _ !” waved Aladdin. “Did you want a picture with us?”

“Sure!” I already had my phone in hand, eyes sparkling at the thought of pictures.

“Rae,” Hibiki stared. “We don’t have time to get side-tracked.”

“It’s not like we have anything else to do at the moment.” I shoved the phone into his hands. “I can’t miss this opportunity! I mean, look at those  _Djinn_ Equip cosplayers! ”

He rolled his eyes at me. “No. I’m not gonna help you take some useless picture with a bunch of flimsy guys. Get Ashitaka to take it.”

“Okay.” I said gleefully as Ashitaka took the phone from him. The Magi gang were already in their rehearsed poses, which made me wonder how many times they’ve had their picture taken. I wondered if that’s all they did for the whole of yesterday.

I huddled beside Aladdin and Morgiana as Ashitaka counted down (monotonously, as always). Hibiki had his arms crossed and was frowning beside her.

“There. Done.” 

Everyone recovered from their frozen smiles and stances. Ashitaka handed me my phone back as I thanked the cast.

“It’s alright,  _onee_ _-san_!” A second Aladdin smiled. 

“Come to think of it, how do you guys differentiate yourselves?” I asked, glancing at the multiple Alibabas and A laddins and Sinbads. “I mean, if there are so many of you cosplaying the same character in the exact same costume, then wouldn’t it be confusing?”

“Oh, about that,” the first Aladdin who invited me to take the picture turned around and pointed on the back his head. “We labelled ourselves.”

I gaped. “I…I see…”

The patch of flames in the shape of a glaring numeral  **2**  on his head made me freeze in my spot. The other Aladdin joined him by showing me the **1** on his head.

“Is…Is that what all of you are doing?” I pointed with a shaky finger. The flames were undoubtedly Alibaba’s harmless flames thanks to his  _Djinn _ Amon, but to label people with numbers on their heads  was  really pitiful.

“Of course not.” Ren Kouha scoffed. “We only did that to the Aladdins because they’re short enough for us to see their numbers.”

“Why can’t you just use different names!? And the two of them are referred to as plurals now?”

“We have our numbers on our arms.” Ren Koumei said, ignoring my reaction. 

“Hold on, we haven’t gotten your number yet.” A Ren Kouen in Astaroth Equip mode said smoothly.

“My number? Why?”

“We’ve been collecting numbers of all the attendees we met. Just in case.” Titus Alexius winked.

“It’s not like there’s any use for it here. There’s no line anyway.” Hibiki’s frown was so deep it marred his Lavi look.

“Uh, correction, you pathetic wimp.” Judar scoffed. “There is a connection line if you’re trying to contact people within the halls. You just can’t do that to anyone outside the barrier.”

“Really?” The signals on my phone were blinking. “I hadn’t been looking at it, so I guess I didn’t realize…”

“Who’re you callinga pathetic wimp?” Hibiki was glaring daggers at the black-haired magi. 

Judar merely shrugged, casting him a mocking glance.

“Come on, Rae. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

“What? Uh, wait–” I quickly dialed my number on Ren Kouen’s white phone and handed it back to him. 

“Thanks. We’ll contact you if we find out anything about the Aberration.”

“Aber–what ?”

“Yeah. This incident, the Aberration.”

“I didn’t know it had a fancy name.”

“RAE!” Hibiki shouted from a far distance away. Even his rage travelled over a few miles. 

“Sorry, I gotta go.” 

“Yeah. Sorry we made your boyfriend mad. We’ll explain to him next time if we ever meet again.”

“Sure… ” I paused as the word  _boyfriend _ sank in. “Wait, what!???”

“Rae and Hibiki are just acquaintances. They only met when the Aberration began,” said Ashitaka, who had been standing ever so soundlessly beside us.

“Really?” Their eyes grew wide. “You two don’t look like you’ve just met for a day.”

“That’s true…”

“Rae, I think I just heard something snap very loudly from Hibiki’s direction. It’s probably just my imagination.”

All hairs stood on its ends. “No, I don’t think you imagined that, Ashitaka… ”

* * *

“What, you meet some guy for one minute and suddenly you give him your number?”

I sighed as Hibiki ranted on. We were walking past the gamers’ hall, where gamers could watch  _League of Legends_ battles on a gigantic screen in the centre of the hall. There were rows of computers at one side of the hall where it was completely occupied by avid gamers (seriously, I don’t know why they’re still sitting here staring at screens when a real game- ish world was unfolding before their eyes) and rows of empty tables. A few decks of cards were sprawled on it.

“He didn’t just ask for mine. They did that to everyone they meet. Besides, I didn’t just give it to Ren Kouen alone. It’s for all of them.”

“And that’s supposed to make things better!? They’re all strangers, Rae!”

“Excuse me?” My voice rose together with my irritation, the words of the cast about us being strangers growing on me. “In case if you haven’t noticed, I’ve only met you for a day and that technically makes you a stranger too!”

“Ooh. Burn.” Ashitaka said as she watched us. At least one of us was having fun.

Hibiki shot me a glare so intense I had to look away. He was too angry for words. 

The air was stiff and heavy. After a long pause, Ashitaka said. “I’ll leave it to you to settle this.”

“Wait, what? Where are you going?” I asked as she began making her way towards the _League of Legends_ screen.

“I’ll be around the hall if you need me.” She said, looking over her shoulders.

I sighed as she disappeared among the crowd of gamers watching the battle onscreen. I stood with my lips pursed for a moment, wondering if there was anything at all to solve. Sure, it might’ve been hurtful to tell Hibiki that he and I were only strangers after everything we went through together, but I wasn’t lying either–we’ve only met for a day, and there is only so much you can find out about a person in twenty-four hours.

“I’m off to watch Vanguard.” Hibiki mumbled under his breath with an underlying tone that warned me not to follow him.

I watched him leave with his hands in his pockets. A very un-Lavi-like behaviour. Come to think of it, I don’t think Lavi was supposed to get angry either.

Hibiki was such a terrible Lavi cosplayer.

I leaned against the wall and attempted to amuse myself with the sight of probable NEETs losing their games. I folded my arms, feeling the bandages rub against my skin.

Stretching out my fingers, I looked at my injuries. 

_ “But I didn’t help you with the bandages.” Erza added.  _

_ “You didn’t? Then who did?” _

_ She nodded to the figure beside me. I turned to Hibiki, who was still fast asleep.  _

_ “He was the one who shielded you from the explosion too, in case if you can’t remember. He got those scars on his face when he did.” _

I threw my head upwards with a heavy sigh. Things wouldn’t be so difficult if he’d just left me alone.

Whilst wafting around in my sea of thoughts, everything in my vision disappeared as the hall was filled with darkness. An instant uproar occurred.

“What the hell’s going on?”

“Shit! I was almost winning!”

“Did the power go out?”

Practically everyone in the hall were shouting, creating a raucous and wild chaos. I could sense a lot of movement around me as well, with chairs clattering as the NEETs all got to their feet.

“I don’t care who does it, somebody just go fix the power!” 

Of course, getting their faces back to the screens were all they could think about. People were pushing around blindly (literally) and swearing in each other’s faces.

“Ouch! You stepped on me, you bitch!” 

“Sorry…” I backed away, only to bump shoulders with another guy.

“Watch it!”

“Sorry…”

The deafening racket made it almost impossible to think. I could only make out the silhouettes of the crowd vaguely, and to identify Ashitaka and Hibiki among them was unfeasible.

Rectangular lights from phone screens were appearing all around me, but even with tens and close to hundreds of screen-lights, the hall was still rather bleak.

Remaining in darkness was a frightening thing to experience, and with not knowing how much longer the power will stay out, the fear only escalated. A few minutes felt like hours in the dark. Uncertainty of what was before and around me sent chills down my spine. Will the lights come back soon?

What if the power never comes back, and we’ll have to stay in this darkness forever?

I shut my eyes tight. Not that it made any difference, since everything was still pitch black anyway. I took in deep breaths, and as soon as my heartbeat slowed, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.

_ “You’re an Original  Character, aren’t you?” Ashitaka approached me after her fight with skanky Hans. _

_ I nodded. “You’re an OC too, right?” _

_ “Yes.” She answered while she scanned the area. There were a few people a few booths away from us, but no one closer than that within our radius.  _

_ “I don’t think anyone would attack.” I said, catching her gaze. _

_ She didn’t reply to that. I followed her as she went towards an artist’s booth.  _

_ “What’s your weapon?” _

_ “Uh…stiletto blades.” _

_ She eyed me from top to bottom, as if judging my worth. _

_ “I see.” _

_ I reached into my elbow and pulled out a blade. “It seems like my weapons are replaced whenever I use them. The ones I had in my sleeves were supposed to be lost when I was fighting yesterday – I mean, early this morning – but I have a new pair of blades here.” _

_ “I don’t ever run out of bullets either. Must be the magic in the air.” She said. “But we OCs can’t rely on our weapons as much as the other cosplayers.” _

_ “Why not?” _

_ “Their powers and attacks are more developed; they have specific moves and different l evels of strength with each attack as predesigned by their respective creators. This is different from us. We’re the creators of our own characters and there is always a limit to our strengths as compared to actual ACG characters.” _

_ “I guess that makes us a lot weaker than the pack.” _

_ She nodded. “But that just means that we OCs have to rely on our human senses a lot more. Without special abilities or specific fighting styles, we have to utilize whatever we have to its maximum.” _

_ I sat on the chair at the booth as she took a seat next to me.  _

_ “But if we develop our characters better we’ll be stronger, right?” _

_ “Probably.” _

_ I sighed. “So you’re not sure either…” _

_ “We have to do what it takes to survive, so it’s worth trying.” _

_ “Develop our characters better…” I muttered as I sank into deep thought. _

_ “There are basically two main parts to creating an OC: personality and battle strength. If you’re able to create a well-rounded character with specific traits of the two aspects, you’ll be on par with the others.” _

_ “Personality and battle strength?” I paused. “What about backstory? Like, every character must have a past, right?” _

_ Ashitaka was silent.  _

_ “Okay…” My voice trailed off. “Then, what did you mean by depending on our human senses? As in sight, smell, taste and all that?” _

_ “Yes, since that’s all we can count on. When one of your senses is shut down, you’ll have to turn to the other senses f or help. Sense and instinct are crucial if you want to stay alive.  _

_ “I’ve never tried pushing myself to use my senses before, so I don’t really think they’re gonna be very strong.” _

_ “You’ll learn soon.”  _

_ “Really?” _

_ “Yeah, when you’re in a pinch or are facing some life-and-death situation.” _

_ The fact she said it monotonously just made her words sound worse. _

In a pinch…that would be right now, right?

I managed (after a near-fatal attempt to approach the desktops) to seize a pair of earphones. No gamer played with the sounds blaring openly, so since every single desktop had a pair, it was easy for me to find and  _borrow _ one .

I plugged it instinctively into my phone and shoved it into my ears. I narrowed my eyes at the blinding flash of light from my phone screen and deftly navigated my way to my playlist.

I hit the shuffle key and turned up the volume to max, completely shutting out the screams of those around me. Without the noise interrupting my chain of thought, I carefully piloted my way through the crowd while paying close attention to how it felt like when someone was close.

Even after moving around blind for a while, I still had trouble finding my way without knocking into someone.

But I was getting the hang of it: I could feel it – how to avoid incoming humans, how to pass by someone without bumping shoulders, how to sense the wave of the herd. 

A vague silhouette appeared from the corner of my eye, causing me to leap backwards. Sure enough, I’d just gotten out of the way of another person.

The question still remained: how was I going to find Hibiki or Ashitaka? It was also in that moment when I came to the depressing realization that I didn’t have either one of their phone numbers.

I sighed, dwelling in my own stupidity. How was it possible that I had absolutely no means of contacting them?

_ "Sense and instinct are crucial if you want to stay alive." _

Ashitaka’s words rang in my head. Sense, huh…

Obviously, relying on my sight was out of the question, and with the chaotic situation there was no way I could listen my way towards those two. All that was left was…

Touch? No.

Taste? Ugh.

Smell?

I snapped my fingers. Hibiki’s cologne and hairspray was so strong I could probably smell it from half a mile away. Excited at my newfound discovery, I took a deep breath and instantly regretted it.

The hall was filled with hundreds of attendees who haven’t taken a bath in more than a day. You could imagine the extent of the stench the place had. I hadn’t been sniffing around for fragrances previously so it didn’t really matter, but now that I had to sniff my way to find Hibiki, I didn’t think I was capable of inhaling all that odour.

Someone knocked me hard on my shoulder. I stumbled and nearly lost my footing on my heels. The one who knocked into me roared in my ear and even with my anime songs blaring, I could make out all the swear words he was cussing. 

I needed to get out of the darkness fast. It was steadily driving people in sane with each passing minute; to constantly run into strangers and not have your fingers on the gamekeys instead. 

I had no choice but to sniff my way out of here. 

I exhaled, trying to let out all the dread I had about the permanent damage to my smell receptors.

Recalling the signature blend of hairspray and cologne, I sniffed around for any signs of a match. 

I swivelled around in time to avoid an incoming silhouette. To focus on dodging the shadows and find Hibiki with my nose at the same time was a difficult task. 

I walked in the dark for what felt like an hour and had begun to wonder why no one thought of opening the doors to let in the sunlight from the hallways outside. However, I could only dream of doing so in my state of unable to pinpoint my exact location in the hall. 

I sighed as thoughts of H ibiki flowed in. Where was he? Was he looking for me too?

Nah, he was probably too angry to even think about searching for me. 

The reason he got mad was still a question I couldn’t comprehend. So I _was_ kind of fawning not-so-inwardly at some of the Magi guys and I did give them my number willingly, but he was getting all chummy with the bunch of girls earlier and he didn’t see me getting pissed at him. (Well yeah I walked away fuming but I didn't yell in his face.)

_ “In case if you haven’t noticed, I’ve only met you for a day and that technically makes you a stranger too!” _

I felt for the wall beside me and stopped in my tracks. Leaning against the wall to prevent unnecessary bruises, I pulled out the earphones. The buzz of the hall filled my ears once again.

I bit my lip. Hibiki was no stranger. Without him I wouldn’t have made it this far. Without him I could’ve died in Hall Nine. And now, the person I was looking for was this so-called stranger.

I’ve been attending the first few days of Anifiesta alone and had been perfectly fine navigating my way around. Being alone was fine. Being alone after experiencing the company of another was not.

Somehow, Hibiki wasn’t just there for the sake of companionship. It was much more. 

My near-death yesterday was brought to mind, when I first met him.

_ “Hang in there,” He said. “I’m getting you a healer.” _

_ “She needs medical attention ASAP!” He yelled. “I need a healer! Any healers around!?” _

Then when he wanted to check my wounds against my will.

_ I sighed unhappily as I reluctantly lifted my shirt to reveal my belly. Hibiki bent down to take a close look at the wound. I shifted uncomfortably under his scrutiny. _

_ “Hmm…it’s gonna leave a scar.”  _

_ … _

_ I stared at his outstretched fingers. _

_ “I just wanted to touch it to see if it’s too deep.” He tilted his head innocently. I could feel my face burning at his unintentional advances. No, I’m not even sure if they were unintentional at all. _

…

At the hallways…

_ “You’ve been weird since we saw that guy freak out,” Hibiki pressed on. “If you’re worried about getting hurt again, well you don’t have to. I’m here.” _

When we first met the alliance…

_ “If Hibiki’s all you want then take him.” I rolled my eyes. Another explosion went off. _

_ “I’m not leaving Rae, by the way.” Hibiki glanced at me with a crooked grin. _

When I was fighting Andou-san…

_ “Stop!” Hibiki shouted, wanting to rush out to my aid, but was held back by Roy Mustang. “Get your hands off of me! She needs me!” _

When he rushed to my aid, when he shielded me from the explosion and got himself injured, when he thought first of bandaging the wounds on my fingers instead of taking care of himself, when he came looking for me the first thing after he woke up…

All the many, many things a stranger had done for me…

All in one day…

I exhaled, feeling heat rise to my cheeks. I froze, sensing my accelerating heartbeat.

All the many, many things I want to do for that stranger…

All the many, many feelings I have for that stranger…

Realization zapped me as I widened my eyes.

_ Hibiki. _

Oh. No.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it and I would really, really appreciate some feedback on it! :)


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